The Implications of Being a Glass Cannon
by DownSmashJon
Summary: When it came to video games, Jaune Arc always believed that pure power was the way to go. So when his entire reality suddenly turns into an RPG, Jaune soon learns that the path to becoming a glass cannon has rather "complicated" implications. (Gamer! Jaune AU.)
1. Theory of Glass Cannons

**Oh look, another Gamer/RWBY fanfic. Before you read, I'm sure you got some questions:**

 **Is it AU? Of course, it is!**

 **Will I enjoy reading this? Depends if I'm able to find every single grammatical error.**

 **Shipping? Don't know yet; might sink all ships or call upon the Harem ship.**

 **What makes this different from the other 'Jaune is The Gamer' fics? Why, the 'implications' of the title of course!**

 ***Edit: Changed dexterity to Constitution to avoid confusion.***

* * *

In his 17 years of growing up, Jaune Arc had come to a conclusion about the world of Remnant.

In this world, there are two kinds of gamers: the Professionals and the Casuals.

The Professionals are gamers who obtain their skill through hard work and countless hours of dedication. These are the gamers that are able to perform the unimaginable feats that create the fine line between the two types. Speed-running? Childs' play. One man army? They aren't the digital giants – they're the ones who slay them by themselves. Exploiting? It's practically on their ten commandments to never use them, let alone think about it. Professionals are the beings that come up with strategies and absolute builds that, by itself, can rival a military tacticians' line of thought. To them, it didn't matter if they had to grind for countless hours just for a simple item. As long as they achieve their end goal – they're willing to do anything regardless if the concept of "fun" was missing. But in the end, they're just ordinary people that simply exploit their passion into a careful craft of art.

The Casuals on the other hand; they're entirely the opposite. In a general term, Casuals represent the ordinary man that goes to work every day performing nothing more or less of what's expected of them. The only thing that matters to them is their enjoyment in life. Indeed, Casual gamers care nothing more about video games so long as they have fun. To them, it's all about the moment of laughter and cheer amongst themselves. No need to rush through a game – just play at your own pace and enjoy everything it has to offer. Tough boss give you trouble? Call in your friends and have a festival trying to end its life! Exploits? As long as everyone is enjoying themselves, who cares if you break the game!

Now where did Jaune fit between these two archetypes?

Neither.

Through his perspective, Jaune viewed himself somewhere along the fence; a place in-between the boundaries. He played video games based on the sole purpose to enjoy himself. That meant that he was a Casual right? Wrong. Although Jaune played for fun, it was the dedication to spend an entire week of constant playing of doing nothing more than grinding for experience points that also made him a candidate for an ideal Professional. The worst part about this dilemma? He felt as if he was the only one who existed in this void-like space. Jaune sensed a feeling of loneliness every time one group of his online friends would discuss the best strategy while the other group would talk about trapping some poor noob in a corner.

If only Jaune just let go of his unorthodox belief about how video games were played, he would be able to define himself among the two groups. But what was this belief that alienated him from connection among gamers?

' _Jaune's Theory of Glass Cannons'_

No matter which video game he played, Jaune followed the self-belief of: " _The best defense makes the WORST offense and all other stats are worthless except for offense!_ " That was what being glass cannon meant: to be able to dish out an absurd amount of damage at the expense of having little to no defense. Most gamers found that strategy to be completely stupid – why have so much power when you can die in one hit? Jaune simply laughed at their responses. For Jaune had spent the majority of his teenage years developing the solution to this issue. A solution so complex, yet so simple that it took a controller to his head for him to realize it: _Don't get hit._

You may be extremely pathetic when it comes to taking a hit, but if that's the case, don't take a hit then.

That was where his "problem" lied. He enjoyed being able to steamroll through his enemies, to laugh as he continued his rampage. But to possibly perform a series of quests or repeatedly killing mobs to attain power – all while enjoying it? Yeah, he was clearly trapped within the separation line.

Despite this, deep down he knew that there was no point in escaping his ideals. Jaune Arc was a gamer. A dedicated gamer who enjoyed the implications of playing as a glass cannon. Now, he will become _The Gamer_ as soon as he wakes up from his dream.

"Wait. . . WHAT?!"

* * *

Jaune's azure eyes jerked open as the sound of the alarm blared loudly into his ears. He groaned in annoyance as he lifted his head – from his desk? Oh Monty, he must have passed out last night when he was trying to finish up his essay. He let out a mental sigh for his blunder. _'This is what you get for procrastinating Jaune.'_ He thought to himself as he rose from his chair. He placed his left hand over his neck as he gave it a quick rotation; the sound of bone creaking was heard. Jaune felt extremely tired as he begrudgingly inched his lifeless feet to the beeping digital alarm clock that rested on his drawer across the room.

 _"~Soooooo faaaar . . . ~"_ the blond groaned. He was halfway before he tripped over something. Jaune let out a silent curse as he crashed onto the floor with a faint _THUD_. He had tripped over one of his controllers – again. For a dedicated gamer, Jaune's room was quite plain. Beside his desk was a television set that had an assortment of gaming consoles hooked up. The only problem was that one of said consoles was an artifact from the golden ages. As such, to use such a fossil required a certain type of controller that Jaune absolutely hated: wired. They were long snake-like abominations that would somehow tangle themselves moments after he would leave the room. He could never understand as to how his father was able to enjoy such a monstrosity.

Jaune really couldn't feel his body at the moment. Everything felt so numb and relaxing; the floor was practically inviting him to go back to sleep. "Not worth it Jaune, your roommate will kill you if you wake her up. . ." he whispered aloud as he forced himself back up. With one final push, Jaune lazily slammed the palm of his hand on the alarm clock – ending its ear-splitting beeps.

With the alarm off, the only sound left in his room was the soft symphony of a video game title screen that played through his TV. He must have forgotten to turn it off yesterday. He stared at the screen, the only light source that dimly lit his otherwise dark room. _Remnant Fantasy I_ , the very first game where he discovered the truth of the glass cannon. The blond recalled fond memories of mere laughter and glee when he was one-hitting everything in the mid-game.

He sat down on the chair in front of the desk and looked upon a textbook and a white sheet of paper which he could only assume would be his homework assignment. What? When you stay up for 2 days without sleep, your brain begins to lag. When he glanced over at the sheet, he let out a chuckle before he smacked himself over the head. In poorly drawn scribbles, the only thing he saw on his paper was:

 **jAune'S TH3orY of GLaSs CaNNONz**

 **ProfESsiOnALS CAsuALs**

 _WHERE DO I GO? -_

"Ah . . . so that's where my dream came from." Jaune deduced as he cringed at his penmanship. "Ok, I learned my lesson, no more all-nighters playing video games." He was about to reach for the paper before the impossible happened.

 **Your brilliant deduction skill has increased your WIS by 1!**

"WHAT THE HECK?!" he exclaimed. A loud crash echoed in his room as he fell backward with his chair. The impact had sent the boy's legs upwards; in response, the momentum had forced Jaune to roll backward off the chair and land on the floor once again. Jaune let out a shrill screech as his balls collided with the same wired controller that had caused him to trip. Pain rippled through his body; the shock had jolted his entire body alive and he could now feel his testicles on fire. He closed his body inward as he placed both hands over his damaged goods. "Why is it always me?!" he complained in a slightly higher pitch.

Ok, now he was definitely learning his lesson about his lack of sleep. For a moment, Jaune could have sworn he saw a floating sentence that had informed him that a "stat" had increased. _'Yeah, yeah, that's it. Too many video games and too little sleep. You're not going crazy Jaune, you just need sleep!'_ he desperately thought.

Moments later, once the pain subsided, Jaune slowly got up and carefully shifted towards the desk.

Nothing.

He rubbed his eyes to reassure himself.

Same result.

Jaune sighed in relief. Good, it was his mind playing tricks on him. He remembered what his history teacher had told him about lack of sleep. That it would cause hallucinations – imaginary figures that the brain, in an attempt to function properly, would create. Indeed, all he needed was sleep and this would be all over.

 **Your intelligent recollection of information has increased your INT by 1!**

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Jaune screamed as he quickly grabbed the sheet of paper and crumpled it into a ball. He threw it onto the floor before he began to repeatedly stomp on it. "I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy, I'm not-

 **Repeated physical effort has increased your ATK by 1!**

"I'M NOT **CRAZY**!" Jaune declared loudly.

That was when the strangest thing happened. Jaune suddenly felt a strange warmth enveloping him. It spoke a silent message: _"Everything will be alright"_. He didn't know how to react to this entity. He _knew_ he should freak out even more; heck Jaune was questioning whether or not he had finally undergone a mental breakdown. But right now, he _felt_ calm, as if whatever problem in front of him had just disappeared. And like that, Jaune exhaled and he just calmed down.

He slowly picked up the piece of garbage off the floor and just dropped it back onto his desk. He picked up the chair and set it properly before sitting down. Jaune just stared at it aimlessly wondering if he was just barely hanging on to his sanity. "Do crazy people act calm?" he spoke aloud. "Hmm, pretty sure they don't. But talking to yourself kind of puts one's sanity into question. . ."

His line of thought was broken when he heard the faint sound of footsteps approaching the door to his room. Aw Dust, he woke _her_ up. The door slammed open as a petite girl marched into his room. She was about a head shorter than him, but her large ego compensated for that. She had white silk-like hair that hung over her delicate shoulders. Her sky blue eyes were giving him a piercing glare as he stared – slightly terrified – back. She wore nothing more than a white oversized T-Shirt that extended all the way to her thighs, revealing a rather ample view of her milky legs. Even in the dark, Jaune regarded her appearance as an angel. Unfortunately, her personality was as cold as ice. The lovely Ice Queen and his roommate – Weiss Schnee.

"Do you have any idea how much noise you're making?!" Weiss demanded as she walked up to confront him. This felt weird to Jaune however. He knew that his roommate wasn't a morning person and he was especially aware that he should be horrified whenever he does wake her up. That was one of the many ground rules that was established when living with Weiss Schnee: wake her up and expect either a cracked game disc or a one-way ticket to the hospital. Most of the times sadly, Jaune chose the hospital over his precious video games. But this scenario just felt off. For some reason, Jaune's fear just wasn't present right now. He still felt calm even though his brain was telling him to feel scared. Yup, Jaune had definitely gone crazy.

His roommate must have noticed the lack of fear as well since she began to rub her eyes and stared at him with an even greater venom-like look. "Have you gone deaf Arc? I asked you a question!" She was standing over him as she was interrogating him; a sudden thought had emerged in his assumingly insane mind.

' _This is an intimidation tactic.'_ After three whole years of living with her, he finally came to that realization. Whenever Jaune would accidentally wake her, Weiss would always make sure that she would be in a position where she would literally appear taller than him; it was to make him feel smaller, inferior to her. Right now, she was trying to prevent him from getting out of his chair. _'Well, I'm either going to be declared dead or crazy by the end of the day. Might as well get it over with.'_ Jaune concluded in his mind.

"Well? Don't make me repeat myself-

Taking his chance, the blond gamer rose from his seat and stared back at her. Aside from the quiet music playing from the TV, there was nothing but silence between the two. "Well . . . this is awkward" Jaune said a couple minutes later. _'So far so good.'_

"E-Excuse me?!" Weiss yelled back trying to regain her footing against the blond. She appeared to be surprised – shocked if anything – that the harmless boy actually stood up against her after three whole years of being in the same apartment. _'Alright, she seems a bit disoriented. Let's see if I can further her mental disposition.'_

"Um. . . well, you see . . . ah Weiss . . . I sort of was sleeping on my desk trying to finish up my history report last night." Jaune began in a fake nervous tone, "And my alarm startled me to the point where I fell off my chair and somehow managed to hit myself in the groin with one of my controllers. You know how us guys are – we're practically _glass cannons_ down there." Weiss' eyes widened and her cheeks turned ever so slightly red. It took a moment before he realized his messed up metaphor. "Oh no, I didn't mean it like that! What I meant was that it's very delicate down there! You know, l-like glass – they're fragile and can break really easily!"

"W-Which controller?" she demanded. Jaune looked down and pointed at the one beside her feet. Weiss immediately let out a squeak as she kicked the wired controller away from her. It took her a brief moment before she regained her composure. "W-Well . . . considering the f-fact that you got hit in the – well _down there_ , I think I'll be nice and let you off the hook just this time."

' _Whoa, for once I actually won a battle again We-_

 **Your decisive decision making has increased your WIS by 1!**

 **Your clever reasoning has increased your WIS by 1!**

Upon seeing the floating text, Jaune immediately stumbled back.

"Arc? Are you alright?" Weiss suddenly asked with a semi-concerned look in her eyes.

"Um . . ." Jaune was actually considering telling his roommate about the randomly appearing text about his increase in stats. But judging from her reaction, Jaune concluded that he was the only one who can see them. Oh Monty, this only further proves that he has descended into the realm of madness.

"I-I'm just . . . um . . . surprised! Yeah, that's it! I'm just totally surprised that you were nice to me . . . moments after _I woke you up_." He quickly lied.

Weiss simply responded with an icy glare. "Are you trying to tell me that I'm some sort of monster in your video games?"

' _More like a beautiful princess . . .'_ he thought, but there was no way he was going to say that to her face. Weiss was the kind of person that didn't need to be rescued; instead, it was you that needed to be rescued from her.

". . . You already suffered enough. No need to beat a dead horse" – she looked away from him – ". . . you peasant." She continued. Ah yes, Weiss' "nickname" for him. Jaune wasn't exactly poor; his family was actually part of the middle class. The problem was where his roommate lived in society's spectrum of wealth. Weiss Schnee was part of the family that was one of the biggest companies in the Dust industry. It wasn't a surprise to him that she could have anything she could ask for growing up. Unfortunately, it was only due to unforeseen circumstances or his ridiculously dumb luck that these two had become roommates.

Weiss looked over to the television before she suddenly fixed a scowl on the boy. "You've been playing video games for the entire night haven't you?!"

"Wha – no! It's just that . . . um . . ." Jaune paused and looked back with a sheepish smile. "Taking a break?" Weiss flicked him on his forehead in response.

She ran her dainty hand through her hair and began, "So what are you going to do to make up for this?"

' _Seriously, how demanding are you? I'm going through a mental breakdown and you actually want me to do something for you . . .'_ Jaune deadpanned. Really, he just won a battle against his roommate for the first time. There was no doubt in his mind that he could create a snowball effect and get off scot-free against her. But that look in her eyes made his resolve falter. Those brilliant blue eyes gazing at him; the luminescent light given off by his television had made them even more noticeable. All while she stared at him with the most adorable hint of a pout on her pretty face. He let out a sigh in defeat, "Fine, fine. I'll make breakfast for you, alright?" The corner of her lips curled into a subtle smile.

"I'm going to the bathroom. Breakfast better be done when I'm out." Weiss said as she walked out of his room. Everything seemed to be returning to normal until a transparent screen had abruptly appeared in front of him.

 **Quest Available!**

 **Morning Nutrition! : A morning meal is required for everyone, especially for annoyingly cold roommates! Make breakfast for Weiss Schnee!**

 **Time limit: 60 minutes.**

 **Completion Reward: 10 EXP. Increased relationship with Weiss.**

 **Failure: Decreased relationship with Weiss.**

 **[Accept] [Decline]**

Jaune's right eye twitched upon reading the screen. He rubbed his eyes vigorously, expecting for the randomly floating text to disappear. He grunted in annoyance when the screen remained. Cautiously, Jaune raised his finger towards the screen. _'Ok time to test if I'm hallucinating or crazy'._

When he touched **[Accept]** , the screen disappeared. "Crazy, I've definitely gone crazy," he muttered to himself. Creating a better relationship by making scrambled eggs for his cold-roommate? "Yeah, I've definitely gone crazy," He answered to himself as we walked into the kitchen.

* * *

It was a rare occasion that Jaune cooked for Weiss. Normally, they would make their meals separately – Jaune actually using the cooking appliances, while Weiss . . . just took whatever he made. Ok, so it was a rare occasion that Weiss asked Jaune to cook for her. Cooking was relatively easy for Jaune; growing up with seven sisters has its perks. It was only when he set down the plate of scrambled eggs on the table that his sanity slipped again.

 **A skill has been created through special interaction! Cooking meals has created the 'Cooking' skill!**

 **Current level: 1. Increase level to improve efficiency in creating the fine art of food!**

Jaune shook his head in disapproval. Even if he was crazy, his cooking level should be higher than 1!

"I suppose scrambled eggs will do," a soft voice called out from behind. Jaune turned his head over to gaze upon his roommate – all prepped and ready in her Signal High uniform. She wore a white blouse underneath a black blazer followed by a red plaid skirt that extended to her mid-thigh. Her white hair was tied into an asymmetrical ponytail that bounced ever so slightly every time she took a step-

 **Quest Completed!**

 **Received Reward!**

What?!

 **You leveled up!**

 **Would you like to edit your stats now?**

 **[Yes] [Later]**

"Stop staring at me like that. You're acting really creepy right now." Weiss interjected, breaking the blond's chain of thought. Jaune's face flushed red in response, "Ah . . . I'll just go get ready now." He walked in the bathroom. "Crazy . . . I've gone crazy" he muttered again.

* * *

Jaune couldn't feel his face anymore as he splashed cold water on it for the umpteenth time. No matter how many times he threw the sink water at himself, that damn message wouldn't go away!

 **Would you like to edit your stats now?**

 **[Yes] [Later]**

"Arg, leave me alone!" he groaned at the message.

This might come out as bias, but what he believed what the worst part about being crazy was? He didn't feel crazy at all! He actually felt normal! It felt as if having random messages popping up was part of his daily life – what the heck?! That isn't normal at all!

He shut off the rushing tap water in defeat. If Jaune pressed **[Yes]** , would it go away? It already happened with that absurd "quest". So it should go away, right? Taking a gulp of air, the blond slowly tapped on the button in mid-air. The message disappeared.

"Oh thank Monty-

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions: Normal]**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lien: 100**

 **Level: 1**

 **Exp: 0/ 25**

 **HP: 50/50 (+)**

 **MP: 10/10 (+)**

 **ATK: 5 (+)**

 **AGI: 7 (+)**

 **CON: 6 (+)**

 **INT: 10 (+)**

 **WIS: 7 (+)**

 **LUK: 1 (+)**

 **Points: 6**

. . .

Jaune blinked once. Then he blinked again. He just . . . couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. It actually made sense now. Everything added up. The stat messages, the Quest pop-pops, the status screen– his entire life got transformed into an RPG! Heck, the fact that he only had 1 point in Luck further proves that he was still in reality; he was known to have horrible RNG after all.

Of course, it's also the fact that he accepted this so easily that still made him question his sanity. "Might as well go along with it. . ." he calmly announced.

He observed the status screen.

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions: Normal]**

Jaune couldn't help but chuckle when he read his condition. " **Normal** ". Apparently his mind had accepted its loss of sanity. What a cruel joke. He was currently missing a title. When he clicked on N/A, a blank list appeared beside him. He probably had to earn them through quests or something.

The class he was assigned was labeled, ' _The Gamer'_. Jaune wasn't sure what that meant aside from the common definition of a person playing video games. He wondered if he had the ability to change classes. Like if he decided to change his class to _'The Fighter'_ , would he suddenly become the greatest martial artist in all of Remnant?

His currency was telling the truth, he did have 100 lien on him. Perhaps this was his subconscious's doing? Nah, reality turned into video game sounds cooler. He noticed his level was at 1 right now. That meant that he was at level 0 the moment he woke up. _Yeesh_ , he woke up as a scrub and he's still a scrub.

His HP stats appeared normal – normal enough for an ordinary human being that is. What surprised him was that he had MP. He remembered one of his video games telling him that everything in the world possessed magic; it just took time to unlock its potential. Did that mean his friends and family possessed mana as well? Regardless, Jaune sold that game when he realized that he couldn't build a glass cannon character – stupid game mechanics forcing him to invest in armor.

Aside from his mediocre luck stat, all his other stats appeared to be reasonable. Agility and constitution made sense. His thin build allowed him to move quickly and allowed him to run for an above average amount of time. Though, it was because of this that Jaune couldn't exactly take a hit. Intelligence involved how much information he could process. He was a high school student and a gamer; his mind was trained to absorb information. Wisdom involves thinking and reasoning right? That would mean that his wisdom had gone up by 3 today. He noticed at the bottom of the screen was "Points". They were probably skill points that were awarded to him when he leveled up.

These stats didn't matter that much to Jaune however. All he cared about was the main stat: ATK, which to his opinion appear below average by his standards. "We'll have to fix that won't we?" He grinned to himself as he reached for the plus symbol beside the glorious attack stat. However, the status screen suddenly disappeared and another message popped up.

 **A skill has been created through special interaction! Constant observation has created the 'Observe' skill!**

 **Current level: 1. Increase level to increase the amount of information received!**

"Huh?" was all he could blurt out before another message appeared before him.

 **Would you like to enable Observe's Passive?**

 **[Yes] [No]**

Curious about this passive ability, Jaune pressed on **[Yes]**. The message box disappeared. Jaune suddenly felt a slight itch in his eyes; he gave them a quick rub. When he opened them he realized that something was off. Jaune Arc was currently staring at himself in the mirror. Or rather, he was staring at the entity floating above his head:

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Lv 1**

"Having your entire reality transform into a video game certainly does have its implications," Jaune announced as he turned away from the mirror.

* * *

 **You know something? Eventually, this class system is going to get absurd the moment I start adding more abilities and passives. Might have to start putting my high school level programming skills to good use now.**


	2. No Tutorial

' _ **I hate exams'**_ **– every high school student** _ **.**_ **Me? I hate physics. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Got exams next week and three whole textbooks that need to be opened.**

 ***Edit: Changed dexterity to Constitution to avoid confusion.***

* * *

Signal High was one of Vale's top schools when it came to academics. Located in a quiet town on the island of Patch, Signal teaches its students the knowledge and discipline required to make it out on top for the future generation. However, since it was one of the best and brightest learning environments, Signal High was notoriously known for one of the highest drop-out rates across the entire region. It's said that only the odd geniuses or the extremely wealthy class even had a chance to outlast the four years within the school's educational system. Should a student _survive_ and graduate, it's practically guaranteed that they could become anything they desired; their futures were unlimited.

For someone like Jaune Arc, however, his future was null and void. His parents told him he could be anything as long as he put in the effort. Unfortunately, all Jaune was ever interested in was beating the boss to move on to the next level. He sort of lacked the motivation when it came to deciding his future career. But he wasn't stupid either. Despite his electronic hobby, Jaune was well aware that his parents were worried – he would even go as far as to claim that his parents were secretly disappointed in him. He wanted to make them proud. Jaune could have picked any high school and work his butt off to meet the grades, but just like a gamer complaining about the lack of attack damage, the blond wanted to achieve the absolute maximum. So as a last ditch effort in reassuring his parents' faith in him, Jaune Arc _applied_ to Signal High. ' _Applied_ ' being a broad term since he had to reach out to the darker parts of the gaming community for help.

However, due to the fact that Signal was on an island, Jaune had to rent out an apartment on Patch itself. Otherwise, the airship trip back and forth from the school to his home would not only kill his family's financial balance, but it would also slaughter his stomach – air sickness was quite common these days.

Being a student who was living alone seemed great in Jaune's opinion. He could play as much video games as he wanted without the constant nagging from his family members. Sadly, everything went down the drain the moment his roommate had abruptly "moved in".

The same roommate whom he was walking to school on with right now.

' **Ice Princess** **'**

 **Weiss Schnee**

 **Lv 5**

"Alright, what is it?" Weiss stopped and turned to him. "You've been giving me this weird look ever since we stepped out of the apartment."

' _Just staring at what's above you, Ice Princess'_ Jaune pointed out in his mind. He assumed that the text above her name was meant to be a title. If it was, then Jaune couldn't help but feel a little annoyed about it. Of course, she would have a title like that – her display of barging into his room and forcing him to cook for her made terrific sense! What made Jaune somewhat nervous was her level. Weiss was level 5 while only he was 1. If having his perception of reality change into an RPG was nothing more than his mind breaking, Jaune had no doubt that Weiss' three years of intimidation tactics has lead his subconscious into believing that she was superior to him.

"U-um . . . it's just that – well you see. . ." Jaune mumbled, currently racking his mind for another white lie of his odd behavior.

"What? Do I have something in my hair?" Weiss crossed her arms and gave him a glare.

Hair? Yeah, he could work with that. "Y-Your hair looks n-nice today – did you do something new to it this morning?" In his mind, Jaune was inwardly cringing. ' _What's wrong with me?! Is that the best excuse I can come up with?!'_

In response, she broke eye-contact away from him. "I-I've done nothing new to my hair . . . you peasant." She turned around – her ponytail whipping the Gamer in the face – and walked to Signal without him. All Jaune could feel at the moment was complete embarrassment accompanied by the faint scent of strawberries.

. . .

"What? That's it?!" Jaune cried out as he stood there watching his cold-roommate walking in the distance. There was no message informing him that his wisdom – a stat that involved problem-solving – hadn't increased. He felt so sure that his reasoning would earn him a boost in WIS. That must mean that the higher a stat, the harder it was to increase it. Which was utterly stupid being that Wisdom was below 10.

Well, he didn't care much for wisdom anyways. His attention was centered on the ATK stat that he _couldn't_ increase since the screen had closed itself. The unfortunate part being that he didn't know how to reopen it. Heck, Jaune didn't know how this RPG system worked. There were no buttons he could interact with to open these options. Why couldn't there be a tutorial level he could complete?!

God, he just sacrificed some of his dignity just to test out RPG mechanics. And he still wasn't sure if he was completely sane either! "I want to die," Jaune groaned aloud as he brought his hand to his face. An insane asylum doesn't sound so bad at this point; at least, he could retain any dignity he had left. Honestly, the cloudless ocean sky and the glare from the morning sun really didn't improve his depressing mood at all.

"Did you two have trouble in bed last night or something?" A familiar voice chirped from behind. Upon hearing it, Jaune brought down his hand and let out a frustrated sigh. He turned around to meet his fellow blonde, classmate, and friend.

 **'Ordinary Person'**

 **Yang Xiao Long**

 **Lv 7**

His eye twitched in irritation when he inspected the text floating above her golden locks. Jaune wasn't surprised, no he actually expected Yang to be a higher level than him. She was the captain of Signal's boxing team. Not only that but she also had an assortment of awards from martial art competitions. Her year's worth of fighting experience is probably what allowed her to achieve such a level.

But what is with that title?! ' **Ordinary Person** ', that doesn't fit her at all! That would be the last thing Jaune Arc would call her! Would an ordinary person make perverted jokes involving Jaune's non-existent love life? Would an ordinary person rip out a classroom door just because someone called her weak? Would an ordinary person fill the headmaster's car with live fireworks – blow it up – and get away with it?! No, they wouldn't – but Yang Xiao Long is definitely the opposite of one!

She currently had that amused expression on her face whenever she felt like teasing him. "Well good morning to you too, Yang," Jaune responded, feigning ignorance from her comment. "Is your sister at school already?" he asked in hopes of changing the subject.

"Oh, you know her . . ." Yang rolled her eyes, ". . . the moment the sun is up, the whistle blows and before I know it, my baby sis' has already left the house." Yang let out a yawn before continuing, "But seriously, what did you do to make Weiss so mad? You're usually all 'buddy-buddy' whenever you're heading for Signal."

During his time at the school, Jaune had come to the conclusion that he would never truly understand the complexity of Yang Xiao Long. One second she's cracking jokes at his expense, then she does a complete 180 and suddenly shows genuine concern for others, and then she reverts back to the harassment. Along with Weiss and his other friends, Jaune probably will never understand the opposite gender. And he's perfectly contempt with that too. It's like a video game: you think you beat it but it turns out that there was a series of secret bosses, sup-plots, and easter-eggs the whole time.

"Yang, where you see _buddy-buddy_ , I see her leading ahead while I follow at a reasonably safe distance," He replied with a dead-pan expression. He readjusted his backpack and motioned his head to indirectly tell his friend that they should start walking. "And if you want to know, all I did was call her hair nice today. Then she suddenly got angry at me, called me a peasant – as usual – and went ahead without me. Well, _ahead_ of our typical walking distance anyways." Like he said before, Jaune will never understand girls.

When Jaune finished, he felt a sharp pain as Yang unexpectedly punched him in the shoulder. " _Ow!_ What was that for?!" Jaune complained, rubbing his injury with his other arm.

"You know Jaune, you're a great guy and all. But sometimes your lack of um – ' _manners'_ towards girls kind of overshadows your good qualities." Yang pointed out in an annoyed tone. Confused by what she just said, Jaune stared blankly ahead trying to decipher Yang's message. If he solved it, would his wisdom or intelligence increase. . .

Jaune's current thoughts broke off when he felt another jolt erupt within the same shoulder that Yang had punched; she punched him again. " _OW_! Stop hitting me in the-

 **Physical endurance has increased you CON by 1!**

Jaune came to a halt in his steps. ' _Constitution_ _huh? Would exercising increase it?_ _Or do I have to become a masochist?'_ Jaune grimaced at the thought. "Physical endurance" seems like such a broad term for a gamer like him.

Actually, since the message was still in front of him, he might as well test some things out. He moved his head to the right, shifting his view. The message remained in the center of his perception. ' _Hmm, so it's going to follow my eyes around, eh?'_ he concluded in his mind. Upon closer inspection, Jaune noticed an **[X]** symbol on the top right corner. It's the close button. Testing his hunch, he lifted his finger and tapped on it – the message instantly disappeared. Judging from the messages in the morning, he realized that these messages would either disappear on their own after a set amount of time, or he could manually close it himself.

"Uh Jaune, you feeling alright?" Yang interrupted as she stared worryingly at him. It took a moment before Jaune realized what kind of predicament he put himself into – standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his eyes and outstretched hand towards Yang's hair. He felt heat rise to his cheeks as embarrassment ran through his body.

"Um . . . I just realized you got nice hair?" he meekly lied. Another portion of his pride had gone out of the door of life, all to keep the fact that he had gone crazy a secret.

Yang silently gazed at the blond before she erupted into laughter. "Flattery will get you nowhere Jaune!"

And then she punched him on the shoulder. Again. The unfortunate part being that his Constitution didn't go up at all.

' _Yeah, a tutorial level would really be helpful right now. . .'_

* * *

School seemed rather weird for Jaune now. Walking through the populated hallways didn't feel right. Perhaps it was that everyone in his sight now had floating texts above their heads or maybe it was because people were looking at him funny since he had bumped into a number of them as he was inspecting his surroundings. Jaune's social ranking in the school's hierarchy was low enough that he couldn't care less of his classmates opinions about him.

He noticed that the students around him were all below level 10. Heck, the vast majority were around a level range of 1 through 5. It was only a small amount of athletes and oddball intellectuals that were over level 5, but even then, the highest level he's noticed amongst that group was 8. The teachers and staff of Signal High were above level 10. That wasn't much of a surprise to him – they literally and figuratively have years of experience under their belt. The highest level Jaune encountered during his trip to class so far was the school's gym teacher, Mr. Branwen, walking around feigning sober with a level 15 floating above his drunken old head. The irritating thing was that he also had the title of **Ordinary Person** floating above his head. Considering the fact that he was Yang's uncle, it probably must be genetics or something. Either that or his mind must enjoy trolling his perception of others.

Jaune also observed that most of them didn't have titles. That could either mean that they were so bland that they easily blended into the crowd or that, if he was truly crazy, his subconscious didn't have enough information about that individual to produce a title. If it was the latter, then being crazy made awfully a lot more sense for giving Yang, who was walking with him to the same class right now, the title of being _ordinary_.

"You know when I asked if you were alright earlier, I actually meant it Jaune," Yang spoke with concern. Of course she was worried. If Yang suddenly began to bump into people aimlessly and stare off in random directions, Jaune would have done the same thing.

He turned to face Yang and said in a faux relaxed voice, "What? Can't a guy observe his surroundings every now and –"a message box blinked in front of his face – ". . . then."

 **'Ordinary Person'**

 **Yang Xiao Long**

 **Lv 7**

 **HP: 80/80**

 **MP: N/A**

" **I'm just an ordinary person, don't mind me!"**

He didn't know what made him more curious: what caused the screen to pop up like the way it did or why his concept of reality had a need to portray Yang as 'normal'.

Was this the active skill of the Observe skill? If so, what did he do to activate it? Reading off the transparent screen, the only extra information was her health and mana points and some absurd description of her normality. He remembered the text explaining that the higher the level for Observe, the more information he would receive. Since it was only level 1, he really wasn't expecting much. As for activating it, Jaune had a guess as to how he could use this skill again. Though, doing it right now might make his friend question his sanity. Speaking of her-

"Hey, Remnant to Jaune, you awake buddy?" Yang called out, snapping her fingers in front of his face.

"Huh?" was all he could blurt out before she placed a hand over his forehead. Although she was an extremely irritating person in his life, Yang was still a good friend. She was the type of person who would drop everything, annoying behavior included, to make sure the ones she cared for were safe. It made sense though. Seeing that Yang was basically the mother figure within her family, Jaune could understand where she was coming from.

"Definitely not warm enough for a fever. . ." she finished as she took her hand off. "Jaune, tell me the truth – are you really feeling alright?" Jaune was about to answer her before she cut him off, "And don't try to avoid the question by flattering my hair." The way her lilac eyes bored into him gave the impression that she wasn't going to budge unless satisfied.

If he couldn't lie, he might as well tell the half-truth. "I-I guess I'm just tired." He produced a fake yawn to sound convincing. "Heh, I guess two straight days of not sleeping wears your brain out."

She stared at him intently for a brief moment before letting out a sigh. "You've been playing video games all night haven't you?" Jaune simply shrugged and returned a weak smile at her. "Honestly, sometimes I can agree with Weiss that living with you is – and I quote – " _a nightmare_ "." She suddenly gave him a playful expression – in response Jaune tuned her out – and she spoke in a seductive whisper, "Then again, if _I_ was your roommate, every night would be a wild –

 **A skill has been created through special interaction! Successfully escaping awkward situations through cunning words has created the 'Speech' skill!**

 **Current Level: 1. Increase level to improve chances of convincing others!**

As Jaune read the skill, he couldn't help but feel that another word for this skill was "lying". He felt like such a scumbag. "Improve chances of convincing others"? That sounds a lot like manipulation in his opinion. Jaune casually rubbed his eyes to avoid any other possible questions from Yang. 'Speech' was one skill Jaune didn't want to be leveled.

"Yeah but since my roommate is too prideful to order fast-food, she wouldn't last a week without my cooking!" he declared in triumph.

"Well can't argue with that logic" Yang agreed as she went into the classroom.

' **Speech' level has gone up by 1!**

"Dammit . . ." was all Jaune muttered in irritation before he followed in.

* * *

Classes were boring for Jaune. It wasn't like he disliked learning or the esteemed teachers, but it was just so _boring_. Yeah, even in his last year before graduation, Jaune couldn't find the willpower within to actually pay attention. Even if he could significantly raise his Intelligence stat by learning in class, he still found no joy in learning at school. Unless it involved video games or his newly discovered Attack stat, Jaune couldn't care less. Mr. Port, a boastful old man, was currently giving the class a tale about how he wrestled an alligator during his high school days. The perfect opportunity to test out the mechanics of his "Game".

He looked at the ruler lying on his desk; this will be his test subject. He spoke in a soft whisper, "Observe".

 **Simple Ruler**

 _ **There really isn't much to it. A simple tool used to measure simple objects using simple measurements. Isn't it simple?**_

 **Durability: Excellent**

 **Damage: N/A**

He stared blankly at the object, mouth gaping from the lack of comprehension. ' _That . . . was surprisingly simple'_ , he mentally smacked himself. Out of all the video games he's played, a speech-synthesis selector was definitely something he had never encountered before. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he let out a sigh. Jaune decided to test out this ability on more materials.

He picked up a pencil from his desk and stared at it intently. "Observe."

 **Pencil**

 _ **A tool used to write one's thoughts down. A horrible weapon in terms for stabbing.**_

 **Durability: Good**

 **Damage: 1**

He reached into his knapsack and pulled out a notebook. "Observe," He whispered.

 **Notebook**

 _ **A multi-purpose tool that only has one limitation: Imagination . . . and 60 pages.**_

 **Durability: Good**

 **Damage: N/A**

Jaune quietly hummed as he drifted into his thoughts. _'Well, it looks like some items have damage while others don't. I guess it makes sense – I mean – how exactly do I beat someone to death with a notebook? Also what the heck? The front of the notebook promised me 72 pages!'_

Using the pencil, he wrote ' _ **Observe'**_ on the front page.

. . . .

After a second of nothing popping up in front of him, Jaune concluded that only speech was the catalyst for using the _Game's_ mechanics.

 _ **Note to self, keep Weiss away from pencils – Jaune**_ , he wrote in his notebook. As he twirled the pencil around his fingers, his mind was currently busy thinking of other ways he could test out this ability. He looked out of the window and spotted a flock of birds passing by in a distance. He whispered "Observe" at the winged animals, but nothing happened. A message suddenly appeared before him.

 **Observe skill out of range!**

Alright, so this skill had a maximum distance of use. It looks like being an omnipotent fortuneteller was off his future career list.

Gazing at his teacher, Jaune used the skill once more.

' **Biology Teacher'**

 **Peter Port**

 **Lv 11**

 **HP: 90/90**

 **MP: N/A**

" **Biology is quite impressive! Why, back in my day, I had to dissect a mighty grizzly bear with nothing more than a pencil and a –**

Jaune immediately closed the screen; he gave his eyes a quick rub at the text he was reading. Oh, there was more, _a lot_ more. We're talking 'scrollable multiple pages' _a lot_ more. Even when Mr. Port wasn't telling his youth stories to the class, that man still had a way to attack Jaune.

That was when a sudden thought appeared in his mind. If this "game system" revolved around the concept of speech controls, then maybe he wasn't screwed at all. His lips transitioned into a smug grin as the gears began to work in his brain. "Status," he spoke quietly.

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions: Normal]**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lien: 100**

 **Level: 1**

 **Exp: 0/ 25**

 **HP: 55/55 (+)**

 **MP: 10/10 (+)**

 **ATK: 5 (+)**

 **AGI: 7 (+)**

 **CON: 7 (+)**

 **INT: 10 (+)**

 **WIS: 7 (+)**

 **LUK: 1 (+)**

 **Points: 6**

' _Strange, I could have sworn that my HP was at 50 in the morning.'_ He thought, staring at his stats. Really, the only thing that got increased on his way to school was his Constitution. He had Yang's antics to thank for that. Testing out a guess, he gently tapped on the **(+)** symbol beside CON.

 **HP: 60/60 (+)**

 **MP: 10/10 (+)**

 **ATK: 5 (+)**

 **AGI: 7 (+)**

 **CON: 8 (+1) (-)**

 **INT: 10 (+)**

 **WIS: 7 (+)**

 **LUK: 1 (+)**

 **Points: 5**

He then put a point into his HP.

 **HP: 70/70 (+1) (-)**

' _So a point in HP will give me a bonus of 10 while a point in CON increases it by 5. What a weird system.'_ Jaune mentally concluded as be reset his points back to 6. In truth, while it was rather interesting to uncover more of what this _imaginary_ gaming system has to offer, Jaune's main focus was the stat that ruled supreme in all video games across Remnant. The Attack stat. The one stat he practically worshiped as a gamer. It made you stronger, allowed you to finish off mobs without breaking a sweat; the very definition of what feeling powerful meant. The other pathetic excuses for stats were noob traps. Assimilating the gaming culture into falsely believing that the other stats were equally important was blasphemy. ' _Glass cannon is strength; Glass cannon is life_ ' was his motto.

With a firm resolve, Jaune put all of his skill points into the Attack stat.

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions: Normal]**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lien: 100**

 **Level: 1**

 **Exp: 0/ 25**

 **HP: 55/55 (+)**

 **MP: 10/10 (+)**

 **ATK: 11 (+6) (-)**

 **AGI: 7 (+)**

 **CON: 7 (+)**

 **INT: 10 (+)**

 **WIS: 7 (+)**

 **LUK: 1 (+)**

 **Points: 0**

 **Confirm?**

 **[Yes] [No]**

That's just insulting – he didn't need a confirmation asking him if he wanted to reject the embrace for power. With a swift motion of his hand, Jaune pressed **[Yes]**.

"Mr. Arc!" a voice boomed at him.

"W-Wha?!" he yelped, jumping from his seat and quickly bringing his hands under his desk.

"I saw what you did, Mr. Arc," Mr. Port's voice sternly directly at him. "Don't try to hide it."

' _He saw it? Was he talking about the Status screen? Wait, does that mean he sees it as well? God, does that mean I'm not crazy?!'_ he inwardly choked on his wandering thoughts. Swallowing a lump down his throat, Jaune asked in a nervous voice "U-Um . . . hide what exactly?"

"Lad, don't play dumb with me. I saw you raise your hand for my question!" the teacher replied jollily.

Jaune's composure faltered as he sank into his desk, "T-The question?"

"Why yes! You were going to answer what the effects of the Haywood flower did to a person's mind!"

Jaune stared back at the beaming man for a good five seconds. "Y-Yeah . . . the answer to that question . . ." he began. The blond briefly looked around the classroom. All eyes were directed towards him, most of which appeared shocked if anything. Heck, he'd be shocked too if he actually participated in class for the first time in three years. Well, except for Yang, she had her hands over her mouth in an attempt to restrain her impending laughter. Out of all people, why him? Actually, never mind – he realized that having a Luck stat of only 1 had obvious implications. He had absolutely no idea what to say, and out-right lying wouldn't exactly get him out of this scenario.

Then again, like the school's headmaster would always say, " _The best answer is the one through experience"_. Jaune let out a cough and then answered with false confidence underlying his tone, "Um . . . madness?" Mr. Port simply raised an eyebrow as if he was expecting more from him. "I-I mean . . . like – you know . . . seeing things that only you can see. Yeah . . . that's it."

"And how exactly, Mr. Arc, would a mad person feel under the flower's influence?" He questioned further. From Jaune's perspective, Mr. Port was trolling him. He was definitely just playing along to get an easy laugh out of the class by making him look like a fool.

Jaune silently gulped and answered in the same faux expression, "They're aware that they're crazy, but everything feels normal for them. Like it was part of their everyday life?"

Jaune was met with silence from the aged biology teacher for what seemed like hours instead of seconds. "Mr. Arc, never in my years of teaching have I . . ."

Here it comes. This was the part where Mr. Port would roast him in front of the class. God, the worst part about this was that Jaune had a feeling that Mr. Port was going to start a lecture about the dangers of not studying – all while using him as the prime example! The blond leaned further into his desk and put his head down, anticipating the Armageddon of Port's tales of awe and grandeur.

". . . witness a student answer that question correct!"

"Wait, what?" Jaune blurted as he raised his head back up.

"My boy, I would always have to start a lecture about this plant species, but you precisely covered all points!" Port let out a jolly chuckle as the sounds of gasps and awkward clapping was heard throughout the classroom. As his azure eyes shifted around, he noticed that Yang was giving him a thumbs-up with a huge grin over her face. Really, was guessing a single question correct worth celebrating over?

"Why, this reminds me of the time when I. . ." Jaune tuned him out as his face contorted into an irritated expression.

' **Speech' level has gone up by 1!**

' **Speech' level has gone up by 1!**

"Dammit . . ." he muttered as his hands covered his face.

* * *

Aside from the awkward pat on the backs from his classmates and verbal harassment from Yang, the rest of the day had been boring. Sure, looking at everybody's stats and observing every object was fun and all. But anyone could do that by using _Wikipedia_. He was lying down on a bench in the center of the school's garden – don't question it, Signal High has an infinite amount of clubs – wondering what else he could do with this strange ability. Granted, he still had doubts about his sanity.

Aside from his apartment or Grimm Eclipse, the garden was possibly the only place where he could relax. He didn't exactly know the reason as to why he preferred this place. Perhaps it was the calming scent of the various flowers, or maybe it was because he could let his mind wander without the worries of having to deal with other people. Whatever it was, it was secluded and nice; Jaune enjoyed its serenity. Everything was blissfully quiet aside from the sound of sprinkling water from one of the nearby members of the gardening club. The _only_ member actually.

What was her name again? With a hedge resembling a figure of a knight blocking his view, Jaune couldn't read the floating text – let alone her face, or her entire person actually. Whatever, he'd remember after his nap.

As he closed his eyes and prepared for oblivion to take him, the music of water tending to the plants had stopped and was quickly followed by the sound of something dropping.

"Where do you think you're going, freak?" a familiar voice sneered from behind the hedge sculpture. Jaune's eyes shot open, he got up from his seat. He knew that voice, everyone in this school did. The individual was well-known in a bad light. As he peered from behind the hedge, he felt his stomach twist in disgust at the scene before him.

It was a tall boy with indigo eyes, and ginger hair combed back. The sleeves of his uniform jacket were ripped off, revealing the muscular frame of his arms. (Why he didn't wear the uniform white dress shirt underneath, Jaune will never know or care to ask). His hand fiercely gripping the nimble arm of the garden member. She was a petite girl with long chestnut hair and eyes. Unlike the brute, she dressed modestly in her uniform with a pair of black leggings. The only unique thing about her was a pair of brown rabbit ears that protruded out of her head. She was a faunus – a human with animal characteristics – but Jaune never discriminated. Equality among the living was his belief.

 **'Rugby Captain'**

 **Cardin Winchester**

 **Lv 7**

A bully among bullies and a prime predator in Signal's chain of being, Cardin Winchester was a person with a nasty reputation. Not only did he enjoy the misery of others, but faunus were his usual prey. If a student didn't know that Cardin was a racist, then they've probably been living under a rock. The worst part was that he used his position on the sports team as an excuse for his immoral behavior. The only thing you can do is ignore him and hope that he gets bored and finds another target – Jaune personally learned this during his first year here.

 **'Gardener Club Member'**

 **Velvet Scarlatina**

 **Lv 3**

Poor girl had been on Cardin's hit-list since the beginning of last year. In a cruel sense, Velvet held the record for the longest time forcibly interacting with that scumbag. Their facial reactions were complete mirror opposites. Velvet wore a pained expression over her face with the slight instance of tears brimming from her eyes. Cardin, on the other hand, had what Jaune could only describe as a disgusting scowl.

"Well? What's the matter, you busy choking on a carrot?!" Cardin howled with laughter. Jaune only clenched his fist at what he was hearing.

"P-Please stop" she pleaded, avoiding eye contact from the brute. She tried to tug away from him, but that only made Cardin's grip even worse. The same could be said about Jaune's fist and anger as well. It felt strange. ' _It's either me or them,'_ that was the most common thought that everyone had whenever they witnessed bullying. For some, they were frightened of what the bullies would do to them. For others, they felt too weak to make a difference. In Jaune's case, he was trapped in between: scared that he would be Cardin's practice dummy again and ashamed that he couldn't fight back.

But at this moment, everything felt _clear._ It was that warm feeling from the morning, erasing any distortions in his mind and replacing it with a clean slate. No, Jaune Arc wasn't going to run away this time, nor ever again. He made up his mind. He was going to-

 **Quest Available!**

 **Stand Up! : It's wrong to witness an injustice and do nothing at all! Save Velvet Scarlatina from her bully!**

 **Time limit: 10 minutes.**

 **Completion Reward: 30 EXP. Increased relationship with Velvet.**

 **Failure: Guilty Conscience.**

 **[Accept] [Decline]**

"Huh . . . well, that works too I guess." Jaune walked out of his hiding spot. "Hey, scumbag!"


	3. Sign

**Okay, this is a message to my old readers for this fic. I messed up the one of the stats for Jaune: dexterity – which translates to how fast your hands are. When I was creating this story, I had believed that DEX revolved around defense. A reviewer pointed out my mistake and I'm grateful for that. As such, I corrected Dexterity with Constitution (CON). Alright, that should be it, I guess.**

* * *

"Hey, scumbag!" Jaune called out to Cardin as he approached him. Actually, that sounded a lot better in his possibly insane head than when he actually blurted it out. But it was too late for Jaune now.

By the time the bully had moved his head, Jaune was standing in front of him. Cardin gave Jaune a bewildered look, blinked multiple times, stared back at Velvet, and then looked back at him again. "Do I know you from somewhere?" He asked in a condescending voice.

At that moment, Jaune just gaped at him in astonishment. He's kidding, right? There's no way a punk like Cardin would forget someone like him! Jaune was literally his punching bag during his first ever semester here at Signal! What the heck! Has everyone gone crazy?! "Are you serious?!" Jaune spoke in exaggeration, "You really don't know me?!"

Cardin scoffed at Jaune's questioning before he let out a sickening laugh. "Did you hit your head on something Arc? Of course I know who you are! I'd be a complete idiot if I couldn't recognize one of my _buddies_." His grip on Velvet's arm tightened and in response, the tears in her eyes became more apparent.

The Rugby Captain just chuckled at Velvet's pain. "See, here's the thing," Cardin began in a slow manner – the kind mirroring a businessman about to fire one of their employees. "The Jaune Arc I know is nothing more than a spineless coward who has the tenacity to hide behind that blonde bimbo Xiao Long and her group of misfits. He's the kind of _guy_ that runs away when everything begins to close around him – kinda like being trapped in a room with the walls closing in to crush you."

"But the Jaune-y boy standing in front of me? Right now, you look like you finally decided to grow a spine." Cardin howled in amusement when he finished that sentence. Jaune wasn't sure whether or not if that was an insult or a compliment. Then again, it's Cardin, so it's definitely an insult. "Oh, who am I kidding, I bet that bimbo finally had enough of you stalking her and she punched the sanity right out of that pathetic peanut you call a brain!" Cardin laughed.

Jaune's legs began to tremble as his face twisted into a grimace. His arms that hung by his sides suddenly felt limp, as if some imaginary force was dragging them down. Out of all times, why now?! All the painful memories with his experience with Winchester slowly began to resurface in his mind. He could only imagine the message that his eyes were giving off right now. His resolve that he believed was powerful was beginning to cave in on him. _'Why am I doing this again? Why the heck am I following the instructions of this absurd "quest" that had appeared out of nowhere?!'_ Jaune inwardly screamed at himself.

The revolting thought of running away and proving Cardin right was beginning to seem prosperous right now. But it immediately dissipated the instant his eyes caught a glimpse of the pained expression that Velvet wore over her face. Her eyes were pleading him for help. It was so faint, quiet and unnoticeable even. Yet, at the same time, her mute cry for help was deafening beyond reason.

Jaune gulped the figurative fear down his throat. His hands balled into a firm fist; he could feel a burning feeling in his palms as his fingernails dug into them. He was going to save her. Not because some imaginative RPG quest was telling him to. No, he was doing this because he was tired of running away. Not from Cardin, but from his very own morals and beliefs. This time – this time he was going to be true to himself and –

 **Recognizing and acting on your moral stance has increased your WIS by 1!**

' _Oh yeah, that's right. I'm insane,'_ he answered himself.

"Listen Arc, how about you run along to your video games, and I'll pretend that this embarrassing moment never hap -" Cardin couldn't finish because Jaune sent a fist into his face. His head leaned back from the force, and Jaune, using all the strength he could muster, pulled Cardin's arm away from Velvet, releasing her from his grip. He gave the brute a good push, hoping that Cardin would be reeling unto the floor. Except all that accomplished was the muscular boy moving a couple steps back before he quickly regained his balance.

' _Maybe Yang wasn't joking when she said that I had spaghetti arms . . .'_ he thought.

"Well, that's just great. . ." Jaune muttered sarcastically. He looked over to the gardening club member. Velvet just stood there staring at him with an unreadable face. Jaune swiftly charged at Cardin, enclosing his arms around Cardin with his feet planted into the ground, in an effort to better distance themselves from Velvet.

"Well don't just stand there, run! Get away from him!" Jaune yelled in hopes that it would shake her out of her gaping daze.

"B-But what a-about you . . .?" she whimpered to the blond. Jaune glanced over to Cardin; his face directed at Jaune was seething. There was no doubt in Jaune's mind that Cardin was going to tunnel-vision towards him and his unbruised face. Chasing after Velvet was the last thing that appeared to be on Cardin's pissed-off mind at the moment.

Cardin scoffed at the blonde's attempt and slowly began forcing himself forward. Jaune was beginning to lose ground.

"Look, uh . . . Velvet, don't worry about me. Just . . . just go find help. I'm going to _try_ and hold him off for as long as I can." Honestly, there was no point in running away from someone like Cardin. Jaune knew that much. He'd hunt you down and, like an animal, eat you alive. Besides, the sooner Cardin takes out his anger out on him, the better chance Velvet will have of not being his physical punching bag. Jaune wouldn't know how to live with himself if the bullying became worse because of him.

Fortunately, his words managed to reach her. Velvet gave him a weak nod and quickly ran away from the scene. He prayed that it was actually his doing and not the Speech skill.

All Jaune could hear moments after Velvet fled was the roaring of Cardin's laughter. "Oh man, that was rich!" He cried out, "I don't know which was more pathetic: you acting like some sort of knight in shining armor or thinking that you actually have a chance against me!"

"Yeah, in hindsight that really wasn't one of my brightest ideas," Jaune said. But it wasn't one of the worst either. Whether it was a good plan or not, the blond successfully managed to free Velvet from Cardin's harassment, so it was worth it in his opinion.

Jaune's legs dangled in the air as Cardin lifted him up from his shoulders. "Well then, let's see how much of a man you really are." He spun Jaune around before his grip around Cardin broke free and was sent hurling into a nearby hedge. Jaune coughed out a leaf as he got up, he wasn't going to back down from him. Jaune brought his hands up, mimicking a faux fighting stance of a character from one of his fighter games.

Cardin chuckled, cracking his knuckles as began walking over to him. "I'm not sure if that was smart or you're actually insane Jaune-y boy. Doesn't matter, I would have pummeled you to death even if you lied there playing dead." Jaune ran forward, his arm pulled back ready to punch Cardin across the face. To his surprise however, the brute just stood there and took his attack straight on. His head turned ever so slightly from the impact, but that was the only thing achieved.

Jaune's eyes narrowed in irritation _'Stupid low attack stat, why couldn't I have started with 50 ATK or something?! Is it my luck? It's my horrible luck that I got such a weak RPG system isn't it?! Do you honestly think I'm some sort of scrub who would bother investing in useless stats like Wisdom?'_

Cardin must have noticed Jaune's expression since he gave him a loud snicker and taunted, "Aww don't feel bad buddy, it's not your fault you don't know how to throw a proper punch. But since I'm such a nice _friend_ , I'll personally teach you."

Before Jaune could even react, Cardin's fist collided into the right side of his jaw. Pain erupted through his face as the Rugby Captain's blow sent him rolling on the ground. A grunt escaped Jaune's lips as he hurryingly tried to get back up. However, the grunt transformed into a breathless wheeze as soon as Cardin swung his foot into Jaune's gut. He could feel the air abruptly escaping his lungs while his stomach groaned in pain from the kick. Jaune fell back down, his back resting against the surface.

 **Physical pain has increased your CON by 1!**

"Not . . . helping right now . . . game. . ." he spoke through a series of coughs. His azure eyes widened in surprise, noticing that Cardin's raised foot was about to descend upon him, Jaune rolled out of the way. This time, he was able to get up without being interrupted by Cardin's attacks. Jaune went back into his stance. "Observe," He said, disguised as another pant for air.

' **Rugby Captain'**

 **Cardin Winchester**

 **Lv 7**

 **HP: 65/70**

 **MP: N/A**

" **To dominate the weak I must become strong so they can cower over me!"**

"Damn . . . looks like those muscles aren't just for show," Jaune muttered with a hint of annoyance in his voice upon reading his Health. He must have invested a lot of time into building up his Constitution. Not like Jaune would know the exact value of the defensive stat; there was a good chance that he would have to level up the Observe skill further if he wanted to look at a person's status.

"What was that, Arc? If you're trying to beg for my forgiveness, forget it! I'm going to crush you until you won't be able to move anymore!" he sneered.

Jaune simply rolled his eyes. "As if I'd apologize to a scumbag like you," he called back loud enough for the bully to hear. Cardin's twisted scowl was the only thing needed for Jaune to realize that he further agitated him. Just fantastic.

It felt _weird_ , Jaune couldn't exactly describe it, but everything felt off. Jaune could feel the lasting pain in his scrawny body and even the very intensity of Cardin's anger. That should make his mind go haywire, moving in all directions at once. But right now, the only term that Jaune could describe the state of his mind would be ' _clear'_. It wasn't like his emotions just disappeared; Jaune could still feel the anger and fear fighting against Cardin, it was just that his chain of thought appeared to have organized itself.

Could it have been that warm feeling? Jaune will have to test out more of these mechanics afterwards if he survives.

Cardin let out a war cry as he lunged towards Jaune. He swung his fist, but Jaune was able to dodge it by quickly ducking. He proceeded with a counter-strike to the face, but Cardin just shrugged it off. The blond jumped to the side to dodge another punch, he leaned back to avoid the Rugby Captain's backhand swing. He jumped even further back when Cardin tried to get a cheap-shot at him by trying to kick him in the groin. _'Man, what a scumbag!'_ he complained inwardly.

 **Successfully dodging attacks has increased your AGI by 1!**

' _Dodging huh? I always thought I had to do something like running 10 kilometers every day to increase Agility_ ', Jaune thought, taking another step back to avoid another attack. He winced as pain suddenly returned throughout his body. Even if his mind was thinking clearly, Jaune's body was having difficulty keeping up. The pain around his abdomen still lingered and a part of his mouth felt numb. "Status," he whispered.

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions: Normal]**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lien: 100**

 **Level: 1**

 **Exp: 0/ 25**

 **HP: 49/60**

 **MP: 10/10**

' _I only lost 11 HP and my body's already sore. If this is an RPG system then where the heck is my health regeneration?!'_ he complained; what a stupid game system. The screen closed itself automatically the moment its built-in timer hit zero. Jaune couldn't keep dodging forever, his stamina was beggining to wear out and Cardin wasn't even breaking a sweat. He couldn't help but question if the 6 level difference was really that significant or that he was that weak to begin with.

The first option would be a really good excuse for his lack of masculinity.

Jaune twisted his body to move away from Cardin's attempted tackle, he extended his leg, effectively tripping the bully. But by the time Cardin regained his composure, Jaune had retreated further back, using the few seconds to regain a steady breath.

Cardin chuckled, "C'mon, is this really all you got Jaune-y? Running away from my attacks won't do you any good! " The cocky grin that he was giving him really infuriated Jaune, but there was nothing he could do about it, sadly. It was pathetic, but fighting Cardin was possibly the only thing close to physical exercise for an indoor gamer like him.

Jaune remained still as Cardin advanced. He hurled a jab to his face, Jaune's brain informed his body to dart to the left but his movement became sluggish from the lack of stamina – Jaune got punched straight in the nose. He stumbled back, a coppery taste enveloping around his lips as a red liquid dripped from his chin. Great, out of all the possible moments, Jaune had to get a nosebleed now.

Stupid 1 Luck stat.

Before Jaune could react, Cardin grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up. He couldn't help but skip a breath staring at the ginger up close and personal. "You know, I take it back. Tell ya' what Arc; if you _promise_ to become my personal slave for the entire year, I _might_ reconsider about you getting out of here with only a couple of broken bones." There was that disgusting smirk on his face again. "It's really simple – even for an idiot like you to understand – all you have to do is ignore that _animal's_ existence and obey my every command." Jaune simply stared back with a glare. "And hey, if you do a really good job, I'll even let you help me, ah _mingle_ with my other 'buddies'."

The burned in memory of Velvet's face was present in his mind during the whole time Cardin was talking. Jaune couldn't – no, wouldn't do such a thing to her. The very thought of it made his stomach feel queasy.

"So what do you say, _friend_?" Cardin questioned sarcastically, a nasty grin on his face. Jaune simply spit his blood-mixed-saliva at his forehead in response.

"As if I'd ever be friends with a scumbag like you. . ." he weakly smiled in triumph. Jaune recalled Yang's words to him during one of her failed pranks, _'Life is short and sweet Jaune. So if Ms. Goodwitch is going to take me down, I might as well go out in style!'_ The poor girl was stuck in detention for an entire month for dying the teacher's hair blue. Still, they were words to live by, Yang, words to live by.

Cardin narrowed his eyes in fury, "big mistake Arc. . ." he declared through glaring teeth. He raised his hand into the air; Jaune could literally see Cardin's knuckles becoming whiter by the second. The beaten blond simply closed his eyes in accepting defeat. If he somehow got out of this alive, his Constitution stat better go up as some form of compensation.

And so Jaune waited for the inevitable with every counting second transforming into an eternity.

But the fatal blow never came. Instead, he was greeted with a familiar voice whose breath held the faintest scent of alcohol (or possibly a strong scent, Jaune couldn't tell with blood running out of his nose). "I don't think that's a good idea, Mr. Winchester."

Jaune opened his eyes, a hand grasped around Cardin's extended arm, just inches away from his bloody face. The look on Cardin's face held an expression of pure shock, his eyes wide like a deer in headlights. His gaze moved towards his savior. He was a middle-aged man wearing a dark gray dress shirt with black pants. The button to the collar was undone revealing a silver cross-shaped necklace around his neck. His black, yet graying, hair remained motionless as a gust of wind flew by the group. His crimson eyes had a slight hint of annoyance as he stared at the Rugby Captain.

' **Ordinary Person'**

 **Qrow Branwen**

 **Lv 15**

Jaune couldn't help but inwardly relax. Even if Signal's gym teacher had one of the most ridiculous titles floating above his head, Jaune couldn't care at this point.

"M-Mr. Branwen, I-I can explain!" Cardin stammered, quickly releasing Jaune. The blond lost his balance and stumbled onto the ground, but they didn't pay attention to him. He wasn't sure whether to be glad or insulted that he was left in the background. Mr. Branwen let him go and simply stared him down.

"Oh really?" He grinned. "You mind explaining to me why Mr. Arc has a broken nose, and why you had your fist raised ready to send him to the afterlife?"

"Um . . . I-I . . . uh," Cardin muttered in a panicking tone, "Jaune-y boy tripped and fell on his face!" Jaune shot him a hateful glare in the bully's direction.

' _Out of all the things you could have said, me tripping face forward on grass was the best you could come up with?"_ he thought.

"Uh huh, and about the other part when you were going to punch him square in the face, what was that about?" The man asked sarcastically.

Cardin returned a sheepish smile, "Um . . . C.P.R?"

At that point, Jaune couldn't help but smack his face at Cardin's ability to lie.

He held back a cry of pain as he quickly regretted his decision to face-palm himself. The blood rushing out of his nose had increased. _Fan~tastic_.

"Of course, Mr. Winchester, that makes perfect sense." His sarcasm was becoming more apparent. "Why don't you head down to Ms. Goodwitch's office? I'm sure she'll _love_ to hear your concern over Mr. Arc's safety." Cardin shot Jaune a scowl before dipping his head and begrudgingly obeying Mr. Branwen. As he walked away, the only sound coming from his mouth was inappropriate ramblings about Jaune. "I'll be joining you in 10 minutes, Mr. Winchester. For your sake, you better be there before me." Cardin sped up his pace when he heard that.

When the echo of doors slamming was heard, the teacher relaxed his shoulders before he began to rub his temples and let out a long sigh. "God, I just woke up from another hangover and I already have to yell at some brat," He grumbled, this time with no authority in his tone. No matter what anyone in this entire school says, Jaune will never see Qrow Branwen as an " **Ordinary Person** ". The man was basically the male version of Yang, minus the blazing temper and desire to constantly harass Jaune. He was a decent man – always looking out for social underlings like the blond, and making sure that his family stayed safe.

The only quality that cast an enormous shadow over possible normality was that Mr. Branwen was . . . well-

"Aw well, might as well have another. . ." he said, reaching into his back-pocket and pulling out a silver flask. He leaned back and took a swig out of it.

. . . Always drunk.

A small hiccup escaped his lips as he placed his alcoholic beverage back into his pocket. "Kid, don't take this the wrong way, but you look like the vomit I threw up in the toilet today." Jaune rolled his eyes at his usual antics. It wasn't that Yang's uncle enjoyed harassing him; he just had a very strange sense of humor.

"But sir, I can explain-"Jaune was cut off by a released burp from the teacher.

"Jaune, how many times do I need to tell you, we're on a first-name basis here." He shook his head in disapproval. He fixed a smug smile on his face. "It's not _sir, mister, or Mr. Branwen_ , it's just Qrow. 'Badass' works too, but say that name in front of my nieces and I'll snap your neck for spewing that inappropriate language in their innocent ears."

That's the thing. When Qrow made sure his family stayed safe, he made sure every possible wall was checked and accounted for. It was basically an unmentioned rule throughout the entire school that asking out Yang and her sister were off-limits. Heck, just being able to talk to them required a full-body and background check from the old drunk himself.

Fortunately for Jaune, his "approved" friendship between Qrow's nieces at the very beginning of his first year had allowed the blond to develop a good relationship with their drunken uncle. Turns out he's a great listener when Jaune wanted to preach his philosophy about glass cannons.

Then again, he had to water it down and compare glass cannons to extreme body builders for Qrow to understand. But nothing less, it was still nice to have someone show attention for his passion, even if they were piss drunk while doing so.

"R-Right, I'll keep that in mind sir- I mean . . . Qrow." He said. Jaune grabbed Qrow's offering hand and stood up. "But seriously, do I look that bad?"

Qrow replied with a chuckle. "Well, you'd be considered handsome if we're comparing you to what I look like after a weekend hangover in one of Vale's bars."

He placed a hand on the blond's shoulder. "But you did good kid – real good."

"I wouldn't consider getting my nose broken by Cardin a good thing," He replied wryly, wiping his sleeve over his nose.

"That's not it, kid. You stood up for another person against that bully. And it's not only that. Jaune, what you just did there was the last thing I'd expect from you out of all people."

"R-Really?"

"Actually, you quitting video games would be the last thing I'd see you do, but you know what I mean." Qrow was about to continue before another burp erupted from his throat. "Excuse me for that. Ahem, now where was I... oh yeah, what you did was the right thing, and I'm proud of you for that, Jaune. I think you're well on your way to becoming a man. Maybe not awesome of a man like me, but you're going to get far."

Despite the last remark, Jaune couldn't help but smile after hearing all of that from Qrow, who didn't even seem fazed that Jaune's teeth were stained with red.

"Well, I'll be seeing you around. I got alcohol to refill and a brat to take care of." Qrow turned away with his hands in his pockets, stumbling towards the nearest exit.

Jaune's eye twitched in annoyance. "H-Hey! Isn't it your job to take me to the nurse's office?!" he called out to him. He winced as a jolt of pain ran through his body. Ok, maybe raising his voice wasn't such a good idea.

"It kinda is, but I'll let _her_ take care of you. It's technically _her_ fault that you got into this mess in the first place." Qrow waved a good-bye before he quite literally walked right through a garden hedge. Jaune wasn't surprised. By now he was already accustomed to the unpredictability of intoxicated people.

As Jaune spit blood filled saliva out of his mouth, he couldn't help but wonder who Qrow meant by "her"-

"U-Um. . .A-Are you alright?" he turned around to gaze upon Velvet emerging from behind a hedge sculpture. She had a concerned look in her brown eyes, whom of which were slightly red from the experience with Cardin earlier.

"Were you watching the whole time?!" Jaune suddenly demanded, a hint of embarrassment warming in his cheeks. Velvet flinched at Jaune's unexpected outburst, shock with a mix of fear added to her expression. Jaune instantly regretted his decision. He could feel the twinge of guilt stabbing into his heart.

"S-Sorry...I-I didn't mean to o-offend you. I'll just go leave you alone-

"Velvet, wait!" he called out to her. Her shoulder tensed even more; his guilt had now become a lump in his throat. "Sorry, sorry – I-I'm not mad at you" – Jaune unexpectedly raised his voice – "ah I meant I didn't _mean_ to yell at you! Dammit, I did it again!" Velvet's features morphed from alarm to curiosity, ' _Oh God, she probably thinks I'm some sick weirdo by now!'_ his inner thoughts screaming from the abyss of his mind.

"No wait, I didn't mean that either!" Trying to explain himself while blood was dripping down his chin really didn't help ease the situation he was in. "Look, it's just that me and Qrow – eh, I mean Mr. Branwen – have a friendship that's better than just "student-teacher bond". You know, _actual friends_." Jaune took a brief moment of pause to think of what to say next. "But I'm the type of guy who prefers to keep it um . . . less apparent, if you know what I mean."

He really hoped Velvet would understand. Jaune didn't want people around the school come to the wrong conclusion that he only became "friends" with Qrow just to have an excuse to hang out with Yang. Plus his parents would send him straight back home if they found out he was hanging around with an alcoholic.

It took a couple moments before Velvet could process the blond's words. Her posture relaxed, and she just shyly looked to the grass beneath her feet. "W-Well, I guess I can see where you're coming from. Y-You wouldn't want people getting the wrong idea about favoritism. You shouldn't w-worry; I'm not a fan of gossiping." Jaune let out a sigh of relief. "B-but for a moment, I really thought you were angry at me. . ."

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"Well . . . I mean just look at you . . . it's m-my fault that you got hurt." She whimpered.

"What? Velvet what are you talking about?" Jaune asked. "It's not your fault-

"Yes it is!" Velvet cried, her composure beginning to crumble as her delicate shoulders began to shake. "If I wasn't so – so _weak_ you wouldn't be gotten that bruise and the bloody nose and - and – "she fell down to her knees and began to sob.

Jaune immediately kneeled down and placed both hands on her shoulders. "Velvet, Velvet, just calm down. Listen to me, it is not your fault, ok? It's not your fault, it's Cardin's – he's the one who did this to me, not you. So please, don't cry. No one blames you, and you shouldn't be blaming yourself either."

He let the words sink in. It was after a couple minutes for Velvet to hold back any more tears, but Jaune had a sinking feeling that the girl was still upset about herself.

"B-But Mr. Branwen even said-

"Qrow – I mean Mr. Branwen just has a weird sense of humor. Plus he's drunk – drunk people always spew stupid stuff out of their mouths." Jaune reassured. Inwardly, he was promising himself that the next time he saw Qrow, he was going to have a long, nice conversation about the do's and don'ts of what to say when exiting a scene.

Velvet replied with a faint smile. "W-Well, that's t-true."

"Y-Yeah! And they do stupid things too! Did you see the way Mr. Branwen just walked through that hedge?" he joked, hoping to raise her mood.

This time, she quietly giggled at what Jaune said. "Well, they _are_ drunk after all."

" _Fin~al~ly_ , someone who actually gets it! Seriously, do you-

' **Speech' level has gone up by 1!**

' _Please let this skill be fake, please let this skill be fake, please let this skill be fake . . .'_ he mentally pleaded. He had a sense of humor, right?

. . . Right?!

"Is something wrong Jaune?" Velvet asked, breaking Jaune out of his mental loop. That concerned expression in those chestnut eyes was back again.

He rose up and offered Velvet his left hand, the one that didn't have blood on it. She accepted politely, but her anxiety was still present.

"Y-Yeah, I'm f-fine" he lied. "I was just thinking . . . um . . ."

' _Dammit! Think Jaune, think!'_

". . . Did you bring Mr. Branwen over here?"

"O-Oh, y-yes I did. I was lucky enough to find Mr. Branwen wandering around the halls. When I told him you were in trouble, he told me to stay away from the garden and he just ran ahead." She broke eye contact from Jaune. "B-But, it just felt so wrong. You put yourself in Cardin's way just to protect me; I wanted – no I had to make sure you were ok. So I took another route to the garden, and when I got there, Mr. Branwen had already sent Cardin away."

"Ok I get that, but why were you hiding?"

"W-Well . . . I didn't want to disobey Mr. Branwen, so I thought it would be best if I just stayed over there and let him take care of you. But somehow, he already knew that I was here." Velvet responded.

"Well, drunk people _are_ unpredictable after all," he shrugged. He wiped his nose with his sleeve again, "hey, do you have a tissue I can borrow or something? This nosebleed is getting really annoying."

Velvet's rabbit ears shot up as she put her hands over her lips. "Oh my gosh, I was so busy crying that I forgot that you're hurt! I'm so stupid!"

"H-hey Velvet, I –

"Go sit on that bench over there right now." She declared, pointing towards an old wooden bench a couple of feet away from him. "There's a first aid kit in the shed –

"Velvet I don't think you have to do all of this for me –"

"Please." Jaune felt a soft warmth as she wrapped her hand around his. "You helped me. I-I think it's only fair that I return the favor." Her concern had now become determination; Jaune couldn't find it in himself to protest.

"O-Ok." Was all he muttered before walking towards the bench.

. . .

They sat there in silence. Velvet wiping the blood off Jaune's face with a wet cloth, while he just sat there staring off into the sky at nothing in particular. In order to stop the blood from flowing out, Velvet told him to pinch the bridge of his nose.

He placed his other hand on his abdomen, feeling around for the area where Cardin had kicked him. He slightly winced when he found the region, the pain appearing and disappearing immediately. As much as he hated this feeling, Jaune was smiling inwardly. It reminded him that he actually did it. He finally stood up for what he believed was right and faced his fears head on.

Granted, he got beat up by Cardin, but it was still something to feel good about it in the end.

"Alright, the blood should stop running out of your nose by now." Velvet suddenly spoke, lightly tapping the blond's hand, informing him to let go. "Your face is clean too, so all that's left is to take care of that bruise near you jaw."

Jaune replied with a hum in agreement. He watched as the rabbit faunus reached into the first-aid kit and pulled out a swab.

"There's a small cut on it, so I'm going to have to disinfect it first. This might sting a little." He simply nodded before tensing his body, preparing for the burning sensation from the alcohol swab. She reached forward but her hand suddenly jerked away. "S-Sorry i-it's just that . . ."

"Velvet, we already talked about this. There's no point in beating yourself up over something you're not responsible for." He assured.

"No, it's not that. It's just – it's just that I never really formally thanked you for standing up for me. Jaune, I'm really grateful for what you did for me. Y-You're actually the first bystander to actually help instead of just walking away . . . s-so" She stared at him for what seemed like an eternity, ". . . Thank you."

"Ah it's ok Velvet, it's –

 **Quest Completed!**

 **Received Reward!**

". . . Alright." He muttered while staring at the screen.

He thought it was just a coincidence with Weiss, but the timing of the message box in front of him erased all doubts.

Terrific, out of all of the possible quest systems, it had to be this one? See, there were the kinds of quests where once you completed the condition, the rewards would magically appear out of nowhere. But the quest system that he had? If Jaune wanted to complete a quest, he would have to confront the quest-giver, which was completely stupid considering the fact that it was his conscience that gave him this quest! And the worst part? The quest-giver had to give some "closure" phrase in order for the quest to be fully "completed".

He felt dread thinking about what would happen if he ever wanted to complete a quest for Mr. Port.

 **You leveled up!**

 **Would you like to edit your stats now?**

 **[Yes] [Later]**

Jaune extended his arm, pretending to stretch but really aiming to click on the **[Later]** button. He was sure that the girl sitting beside him would question his sanity if he suddenly began poking his finger randomly in the air. That would probably lead to a one-way trip to the hospital, which will then lead to a very annoyed Weiss for not making dinner.

' _I wonder if investing another 6 points into ATK would make me punch as hard as Card-_ ' his thoughts were cut off as the feeling of fire burning his flesh abruptly emerged around the bruise on his face. He let out a yelp from the surprise of pain.

" _Shhhhh . . ._ it's ok Jaune, the stinging should stop very soon." Velvet whispered into his ear. She gently placed a fairly large band-aid over the injury, and in that moment, the lingering pain just vanished. Another message popped up in front of him.

 **The majority of your injuries has been treated thoroughly! + 10 HP Restored!**

He immediately reached for his stomach. The pain was still there, but it felt _weaker_. As if some unknown force had injected a numbing drug into that area of his body. It couldn't have been that 10 HP . . . right? Now he's even more curious about these mechanics.

He jumped up from his seat and looked back at Velvet, her eyes wide with shock. "Woah, I feel better already! Thanks a lot, Velvet!" he declared.

"J-Jaune?! U-U-umm I don't know what to say..." she looked down meekly.

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to. But wow, Velvet where did you learn to do all that?"

"O-Oh, I've just been learning as I go . . . I mean, my f-family has a habit of g-getting um... s-small injuries, so I'm pretty much the medi – caretaker around the h-house." She spoke in a weak tone, her eyes avoiding his. Jaune didn't press any further, he can judge from Velvet's expression that she doesn't like talking about her family.

Silence filled the garden again, the two students staring at each other not knowing what else to say. Jaune gave a small cough before saying, "w-well, I guess I'll see you around Velvet."

"Wh-what, you're leaving already?" she almost appeared dejected from the look she had on her face.

"Yeah, I got dungeons to grind and monsters to slay," He replied. Velvet simply returned a confused stare in his direction. "Sorry, I just got a new video game and I really want to test out its functions." He sheepishly grinned.

"O-Oh. . .ok." One of her faunus ears drooped.

"Hey don't feel bad, I'll be here again tomorrow!" he smiled.

Velvet seemed surprised if anything. "Really? I just thought that with everything you experienced, the garden would be the last place you'd visit again."

"Nah, this place is . . . well . . ." He scratched the back of his head, trying to find the words. "I can't really describe it, but being here is just . . . nice."

"So you're really coming back here tomorrow?" her eyes glistening with hope.

"As my dad always says: 'An Arc never goes back on his promise' . . . plus this is the only place in the entire school where I can nap in peace." He said. A quiet giggle escaped from Velvet's lips as he said this. "Well, guess I'll head on home then, later Vel- "

"J-Jaune, wait!" she called out to him. He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I just remembered, but, can you stay right here for a second? There's something in the shed I need to give you"

"Um . . . sure Velvet."

Several minutes passed before Velvet returned. Except she was currently holding an object that made Jaune's jaw drop out of sheer bewilderment.

"It's dangerous out there, please take this." Velvet presented the object for Jaune to take.

"Velvet...is that a..." – Jaune rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating – "...baseball bat? Why do you have a metal bat in your hands?"

"Jaune, I've seen Cardin's friends and I just know he's going to get his revenge on you, even if it's not on school territory. I wouldn't know what to do if you got hurt on your way home. So maybe they'd leave you alone if they saw that you had a weapon." She explained.

"I can understand that, but why exactly do you have a bat stored in your shed?"

"W-Well, it all started after watching a movie with my friends – b-but I think we'd be standing here all the way to sunrise if I told you the whole story." She responded.

"Well, maybe next time you can tell me about it." He accepted the weapon from her. The handle felt cold in his hand as he lifted it up into the air. He saw his partial reflection as the sun gleamed off the steel. In a silent whisper, he observed the weapon.

 **Metal Baseball Bat**

 _ **A tool that has only one purpose: Hitting stuff. If you've been using it as a shovel, then you should go see a therapist or something.**_

 **Durability: Good**

 **Damage: 10**

He gave the girl a grin, "Thanks, Velvet, I feel stronger already!"

Her face lit up when Jaune expressed his gratitude, "A-Ah you don't have to mention it, I just wanted to help some more, t-that's all. But I think it would be best you left now, by now Cardin should be in Ms. Goodwitch's office, so a head start should help you a lot."

"You take care of yourself Velvet," He said before turning towards the exit. "Oh, and before I forget, if that scumbag starts picking on you again just talk to Yang. She'll do a way better job at kicking Cardin to the ground than I can."

As he walked away with a smug smile on his face, his inner self was frowning. _'It only has 10 damage? Man, this thing is a disappointment!'_ he mentally growled.

* * *

The building of Signal lied in the very heart of the large town of Patch. His apartment, however, rested at the outskirts. Thus, meant that Jaune had a long way to go to get to his destination. Fortunately for him, the blond didn't encounter any of Cardin's goons.

But the weird looks from the people who called this place home made him feel very uncomfortable. He wouldn't blame them. He was a teenager holding a baseball bat with a white bandage over his face. They all must be thinking that he was some delinquent ready to break some unfortunate soul's knee caps. Heck, he even saw a cashier, through the display glass, tense up as he walked by the store.

It wasn't until a couple steps along the sidewalk that the realization finally hit him. In hindsight, _maybe_ ditching a girl to play video games seemed like a horrible thing to do.

But Jaune's curiosity over this " _Game_ " was beginning to take hold of him. Up until now, all the mechanics he discovered could easily be classified as hallucinations or rather, manifestations of his subconscious. What he needed was a sign, something would confirm whether or not his mind has finally snapped.

"Is that so hard to ask, world?" he muttered to himself. "Is it so hard to present me a sign to indicate if I've gone insane?"

And as if the world had ears, it responded to Jaune's plea. A strange noise echoed from the shady alleyway beside him. It wasn't some cat screeching or a tin can falling. No, it sounded like a vacuum cleaner trying to suck in a bed of corroded metal.

Now, any normal person would get the hell away from there at that instant. However, Jaune's questionable sanity put him in a situation where he _actually_ wanted to find out what was happening in that alley.

Besides, he had a baseball bat, what's the worst that could happen?

As he cautiously approached the narrow pathway, Jaune gulped a lump down his throat in anticipation. With each creeping step he took, the sound became louder, and the grip over his weapon became tighter. Standing at the sight before him, Jaune couldn't help but lower the bat in awe.

In front of him was what he would describe as a black hole. Like, literally the purest shade of black he'd ever gaze his eyes upon. Except instead of sucking everything in, it was actually sucking _something_ out. Mere moments passed, and a small, glimmering, floating dark orb manifested out of the hole. It was no bigger than Jaune's fist, and no brighter than the lighting in his room in the morning.

And then the black hole that gave birth to the sphere vanished. It was as if the process reversed, causing it to suck itself into non-existence rather than everything surrounding it.

Jaune couldn't comprehend what he just saw, his eyes wide with shock and his skin growing colder by the second. But that wasn't all. By using Observe's passive, Jaune read the text floating above the radiant orb.

' **New Born'**

 **Beowulf Gateway**

 **Difficulty: Easy**

"What . . . the . . . hell?"

* * *

 **Oh my God, I actually did it. 7000 words...like that's the most I've done so far. So what were your thoughts about the Cardin fight? Too short? Too long? Any feedback would be nice. It's funny, during my first draft, I had Jaune one punch Cardin. Then I realized that it was a horrible idea considering our hero only has 11 ATK 0_o. And that last part? Well, I originally planned for the chapter to end with Jaune slipping into a bunch of rose thorns, and then proceeding to say something witty. But I think 3 chapters without the supernatural would feel a little. . . slow, not to mention I haven't even finished showing the basics of Jaune's ability.**

 **Ok that's it, hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you in 2 weeks or next month.**


	4. Fate Is Not on My Side

**So here we are again, back after one month. I could've finished this chapter during the march break, but I got distracted with Undertale. Well, hope you all enjoy chapter 4.**

* * *

 **'** **New Born'**

 **Beowulf Gateway**

 **Difficulty: Easy**

"Seriously, what the hell am I looking at?" he spoke out loud, hoping that some unknown force would answer.

Unfortunately, nothing mystical happened. Stupid 1 luck stat.

Jaune has seen many things, but a miniature dark star floating out of some non-existent black hole definitely takes the prize for the most bizarre. It was just a glowing sphere; what exactly made it a "gateway"? It didn't look like a door at all. More importantly, why was it displaying that the difficulty was **Easy**? On second thought, why did it have **Difficulty** in the first place? Weiss, for example, only displayed her title, level, and name over her petite head. Not only that, but Observe's passive only worked on living beings. (Jaune had no doubts in his mind that he would get a seizure if that passive also applied to objects as well). So what on Remnant is that thing?

Right now, the Beowulf Gateway remained stationary. An array of emotions began to flood his mind as each single second passed. He felt a twist of fear and curiosity in the presence of something new. A part of him wanted to run as fast as possible. Another part of him wanted to stay and investigate this strange entity even further. After all, this might be his only chance to confirm if he lost his sanity or not.

And what he thought was the best part? That warm feeling from earlier had enveloped him the moment he walked into this alleyway, allowing him to think out a strategy on what to do next. _'Okay, first things first. . .'_ he thought, ' _I should use Observe's active and see what other information I can get.'_

"Observe."

 **'** **New Born'**

 **Beowulf Gateway**

 **Difficulty: Easy**

 **HP: N/A**

 **MP: N/A**

 **"A construct born from Nothing; acts as a portal into the Void."**

"Great, now I'm even more confused." Jaune frowned. "How can something be made from nothing?!"

It also explained that it was some kind of portal that would lead to somewhere called the "Void". Honestly, it sounded like the name of some shady bar club downtown.

But the question remains: should he go in? If he stepped through this gateway, would he get answers? Or is this just some illusion?

"Heh, if it is an illusion then I'm definitely going to see some help." He declared.

Carefully, he inched both feet towards the Beowulf Gateway. Jaune could feel the temperature around him drop as he got closer to the construct. The grip on the metal bat tightened to the point where the blond could basically feel his knuckles turning white. He couldn't help but experience anxiety about being in this scenario. What if – like massive _WHAT IF_ – this wasn't an illusion forged from his insanity? He would be hurled into a new location, heck new "world" if he followed through with this. He could be trapped in the unknown for literal eternity for all he knew!

' _Wait, if this is a portal, then how am I supposed to enter?'_ he suddenly realized.

Gritting his teeth, Jaune cautiously extended his weapon at the orb. If he was going to be testing his dumb luck, then he might as well use a test-dummy first. Hopefully, the world won't screw him and have the floating ball explode in his face. That would be a horrible way to go; he could imagine what his tombstone would look like, ' _Here lie the pieces of Jaune Arc, killed by an explosive floating orb that was apparently made out of nothing. . . I don't get paid enough for this job'_. Yeah, he can definitely see the guy in charge of his grave writing that at the end.

It was that moment when the bat had physical contact with the sphere that Jaune immediately regretted his decision. The best way he could describe it was that the Gateway radiated with a stronger flame, and with each passing second, its radiance expanded. Mere moments passed, and Jaune found himself consumed by a blinding light.

* * *

Jaune was disoriented in a general term. Even with his eyes shut, all he could register was pure white. Not to mention that annoying ringing chorusing trough his ear drums. _'If this is what it's like to be hit with a flash grenade, then joining Vale's military is definitely going off my possible careers list!'_ He screamed internally. He could still feel the cold metal from the baseball bat in his grasp. _'Okay, that's good. At least my sense of touch isn't messed up.'_ He pushed the toes of his feet inward; they were met with solid ground through his shoes. Using video game logic, he assumed that that he would be flying through a black hole with the colours of rainbows dashing everywhere. Then again, reality and video games were completely separate things. Well, up until today that is.

When the ringing began to quiet down, Jaune rubbed his eyes with his free hand until his vision restored to darkness. Taking a deep breath, he slowly opened his eyes expecting the worst to come.

". . . What?" he deadpanned. His entire surrounding environment was the same. He was still in the same alleyway; the ocean sky indicating that time was more or less the same thing. The only difference was that the lighting around him was darker. He looked forward and noticed that the Gateway had vanished. Bringing down the bat, he turned around and let out a disappointed sigh, "Crazy, I've definitely gone crazy-"

A sizzling sound was heard in the direction of where the sphere used to be. Looking back, he gazed at a shadow with black smoke rising from the concrete. More smoke appeared out of the shadow as the dark entity sluggishly started to condense into a blob. Its structure appeared to be unstable as bubbles and a foam-like substance was beginning to form. The blob twisted and turned; its shape morphing and materializing into a being. Its new form resembled from what Jaune could interpret as a werewolf from one of his video games. Its size expanded to at least six feet tall standing on its hind legs. Its pitch black claws developed from its arms, extended outward, ready to rip apart whatever got in its way. When its transformation was complete, the wolf-like creature stared at Jaune with crimson eyes filled with bloodlust.

 **Beowulf**

 **Lv 5**

' _So a werewolf made out of smoke and shadows? You don't see that every day. . .'_ Jaune trembled. A shivering feeling had abruptly consumed him. He could feel the blood in his veins freezing up in fear from this monstrosity. His hands were fidgeting with a mind of their own and his legs grew numb; his dread had locked him in place. The only thing that was still functioning was his strangely organized inner thoughts. He wasn't sure if this warm feeling was a blessing or a curse because while he could still think properly, Jaune was just a soul trapped in a frozen vessel right now.

He tried to scream, whisper, heck even let out anything audible, but it was no use. There was a lump of solid horror stuck in his throat.

' _m-move. . .'_

The Beowulf howled, its deafening roar sending vibrations through the boy's spine.

' _Move. . .'_

The beast leaned forward, its blades for claws crushing the concrete floor beneath it. His eyes widened at the sight of its barred teeth, a faint black mist evaporating out of its breath. It was preparing to kill Jaune.

' _C'mon . . . move dammit! You're going to die if you don't!'_

With a growl, the Beowulf lunged at him. "I'm . . . I'm not going to die here!" He declared, forcing his will power against his fear. Just as its claws were about to sink into his flesh, he intercepted the strike with his bat. However, upon immediate contact, the force from the monster had sent Jaune stumbling onto the ground. The wolf pounced on him, but Jaune rolled out of the way in time. He quickly got up and tried to get away from the enclosed space. But the Beowulf intercepted his escape path. It snarled in apparent disgust at his cowardice.

Jaune didn't freeze up this time, however. He felt as if someone had injected liquid adrenaline into his blood stream which was causing him to become high with courage. With both hands firmly gripped on the bat, he cautiously took a step back. The black demon reacted with rage and once again charged at him. He shifted to the right to avoid its attack. Instead of Jaune, the Beowulf slammed its arm right through a dumpster. It violently thrashed its body in an attempt to free itself.

Taking the advantage, Jaune ran up and swung with all his might at the beast. It connected with the monster's left shoulder. The beast howled with fury and forcibly ripped its arm out. Retreating back, he had to resist the urge to vomit at the sight at the way its right arm was bent. The manner that it just hung there lifelessly seemed really disturbing to Jaune. It didn't seem to faze the Beowulf, though. It raised it broken arm, and with a series of alarming cracking noises, it somehow fixed itself into place.

The strange thing, however, was that it just stared aimlessly at the Gamer.

"Observe" he grumbled through gritted teeth. He didn't think that it would help much. After all, how was a description going to save him? That was when another display screen appeared in front of him.

 **'** **Observe' level has gone up by 1!**

 **Beowulf**

 **Lv 5**

 **HP: 94/100**

 **MP: N/A**

" _A low-class Grimm in the hierarchy of Nothing. Despite its position in the chain of command, these monsters have a surprisingly strong healing factor. However, these beings become docile when healing their injuries . . ."_

If the Beowulf becomes docile when healing, that means that it won't be able to attack him! With his new found knowledge, he quickly devised a strategy. He readied himself back into his previous stance. With its fury restored in its eyes, the Beowulf advanced towards him again. It swung its newly repaired arm at him, but Jaune ducked and swung his weapon at its hind leg. It buckled in response, and using the side of the bat, Jaune pushed it towards the ground.

This is where his plan would become effective. While the Beowulf would be busy healing itself, Jaune would be able to get away and call for help. He sprang for the exit out of the alley. But just as when he was about to reach the sidewalk, an invisible force pushed him back into the area with the monster.

"What the heck?!" he cried, quickly steadying himself back to his feet. He extended his hand outward. It was met with some sort of energy wall. It was invisible, but when he touched it, a small portion of it changed into colour resembling a dark tint of the Beowulf Gateway. It felt ominous, kind of like touching the surface of a coffin that held the body of some crazed serial killer that was ready to come back as a zombie at any moment. Annoyed, he punched the barrier; it had no effect.

"Hey! Is anyone out there! I need help! Somebody help me!" he cried out desperately.

But nobody came.

His cries for help faltered when he suddenly heard snarling from behind. The Beowulf was back in its pouncing position, its eyes lusting for his blood.

If he killed whatever that thing was, would he be free to go? He didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

The Beowulf charged at him with a similar form of attack. It was like fighting a mob in a video game. They only had a few attacks before they became predictable. Anticipating the lunge, Jaune jumped out of the way. To his surprise, the energy wall had deflected the Beowulf back into the alleyway as well. Seizing the opportunity, he struck blindly at his opponent. A loud crack rang through his ears as a message popped up in front of him.

 **Enemy left arm crippled! Enemy damage reduced by 10%!**

 **Striking wildly at your enemy has increased you ATK by 1!**

Jaune knew that the Beowulf would become passive in order to heal its arm. Knowing this, he could easily beat this monster into oblivion. He decided it would be efficient to aim for the head rather than just swing randomly. Approaching the beast, Jaune raised the bat over his head, preparing to end this once and for all.

Or so he thought.

The Beowulf let out another furious howl. Suddenly, the monster twisted its body, flinging its crippled arm at a surprised Jaune. Taken off guard by the Beowulf's lack of self-preservation, Jaune was punished with what he could describe as a sledgehammer to the face. The force had sent his body to collide with the wall and he was met with a searing quantity of pain throughout his body.

He was hurting, but still conscious. He focused his attention at the wolf-monster, the same cracking sound emitting from its limb. He cursed its ability to heal – why didn't he have health regeneration?!

His eyes widened in pure shock and his heart stopped beating for the briefest moment.

Beside the Beowulf's feet was his silver baseball bat. "Dammit, it must have fallen out of my grip when that thing launched at me." he groaned. He cursed at the pain he was feeling as he forced himself up against the wall. "S-Status. . ." he grunted.

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions: Normal]**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lien: 100**

 **Level: 2**

 **Exp: 0/ 50**

 **HP: 35/60(+)**

 **MP: 10/10 (+)**

 **ATK: 12 (+)**

 **AGI: 7 (+)**

 **CON: 8 (+)**

 **INT: 10(+)**

 **WIS: 8(+)**

 **LUK: 1(+)**

 **Points: 6**

His HP wasn't that bad. But all it took was a swing with a broken arm to reduce his HP to such an amount. He really didn't want to find out how much he'd have left if that thing managed to get a swipe with its claws against him.

Jaune was tempted to upgrade his stats now, but the Beowulf would have killed him by the time he pressed the **Accept** button. Right now, all he could do was wait for that damn werewolf-thing to finishing healing, dodge its next attack, and head straight for his weapon. After what just happened to him, he wasn't going to take any more chances with testing if that Beowulf was actually "docile".

Mere seconds passed and the Beowulf was ready at another attempt to kill Jaune again. A long breath escaped his mouth in an attempt to calm down his tense muscles. He had one shot at this. If he failed to dodge, Jaune was going to die a painful death.

Without warning, the Beowulf jumped at Jaune, its claw raised to strike the blond. Jaune dashed towards his weapon, he twisted his body to the left to dodge the attack. But just like his fight with Cardin, the sluggish movement of his body screwed him over. The very tip of the Beowulf's claw had managed to slash him across the back of this left shoulder. He wanted to scream in agony as a feeling of fire-burning-flesh raced from his shoulder to his entire left side of his body. He could feel his back becoming tingly as blood trickled out of his wound. Slight tears began to well up in his eyes from the pain. He just wanted to fall onto the floor and accept his fate. But pain was also a good motivator.

The sheer determination to stay alive filled him with even more adrenaline; his senses suddenly began working into overdrive. Next thing he knew, he was standing face to face with the monster with his weapon in hand. Seriously, he felt amazing right now. It was a feeling as if he could take over the entire world! Everything right now felt clearer. It was like that warm feeling didn't just affect his mind anymore, but all of his senses as well!

With a wicked grin on his face, Jaune could no longer hold it in. "Hey you! I'm pretty sure you can't understand me, but my name is Jaune Arc and I'm going to be the one who gets out of this alleyway alive!"

The Beowulf growled in response and lunged at Jaune. Even with gashes over his left shoulder, Jaune still had a firm grip on his weapon. Without thinking, Jaune charged as well. With new found strength, he swung the bat right across its jaw, sending it flying towards the damaged dumpster. The Beowulf shook it off and attacked Jaune again. It swung its right claw at his head. He ducked out of the way. Jaune countered with a one-handed upward swing to its jaw once again. Before it could recover from the blow, Jaune sent the steel towards its left hind leg. Its knee hit the ground upon impact. Using the same move from earlier, he pushed the beast back using the side of his bat.

Instead of running like last time, Jaune was going to press the advantage. He swung down and the Beowulf let out a cry of pain.

 _CRACK!_

 **Enemy left leg crippled! Enemy Agility reduced by 30%!**

He wasn't focused on reducing its speed; he aimed for the leg to make sure it stayed down. It was a savage yet effective strategy.

With his enemy immobilized, he swung downward at its chest. The beast growled in agony. Common sense told him to aim for its head, but logic warned him that was a bad idea. See, if Jaune wanted to strike at this creature's cranium, he had to move a couple feet ahead. Sure, he'd do more damage, but that would lead him wide open to a flailing claw at his legs. He'd prefer to get out of here with both his legs intact. At his current position, he could relentlessly attack the monster without getting hurt. So with the bat raised over his head, he prepared for another attack.

He swung again.

Again.

 **Repeated physical effort has increased your ATK by 1!**

And again.

At first, the Beowulf was thrashing widely, limbs whirling in all directions in a desperate attempt to get away from the blond. Its cries of bloody murder were so loud that Jaune was sure that the entire island must have heard it. But as his brutal strikes connected, its growls became weaker until they were reduced to nothing more than feral grunts. Soon its body began to falter and eventually became limp.

Jaune knew that his next attack would be the finishing blow, he didn't need the Observe skill to inform him that. He gazed upon the beast's face one last time. It stared at him with a stubborn defiance. Even after the Beowulf was beaten, its crimson eyes still possessed that unnatural fury behind them.

Letting out a scream, he swung with all of his remaining strength.

The Beowulf let out an unexpected howl, probably as its dying breath. The blood in its eyes darkened until they looked as if they had become hollow. There was an eerie silence as the corpse remained lifeless; Jaune was half expecting it to get back up and start trying to kill him again. Suddenly, the black smoke he saw earlier began to emit from the still body. It started off as a little puff of dark mist, but then it expanded like a wildfire in just a couple of seconds. Next thing he knew, pieces of the body started to tear off and become part of the smog. It was as if the entire corpse was set ablaze with invisible flames, burning until even the ashes themselves became part of the inferno oblivion.

Even though he was standing right in front of it, his nose couldn't pick up a single hint of burning. The air around him was clean, and his eyes didn't even shed a tear of irritation in the presence of the evaporating smoke. The Beowulf finally disintegrated into nothing. He didn't blink; the sight left his mind wandering for answers.

That was when he noticed something odd. The sky above him had shifted from an ocean of blue to the same shade of colour of that damn Gateway. He narrowed his eyes in confusion. It turned back to its proper colour, only to revert back to the distorted hue a moment after. It initiated a flickering display of colour shifts, much like Weiss turning the light switch on and off to get him out of bed on a lazy weekend. Its rate of change slowed down until the dark tone faded back into the correct colour that he'd grown to love since he was born.

A message popped up in front of him.

 **All enemies eliminated! Gateway cleared!**

"What the -" his voice vanished, sudden weakness overwhelming his entire body. He felt like being crushed alive under a massive boulder. All of his muscles went numb from the aftershock and he stumbled back to lean against the wall with his uninjured shoulder for support. A soft clang rang through his ears as the baseball bat hit the floor. He didn't even have enough strength to clench his hand. The wound that the Beowulf gave him earlier had returned full force; throbbing agony practically screaming from his left shoulder.

His physical boost left him. That warm feeling that had given him the extra strength to prevail over the monster had retreated back to the realm of his mind. And now his body was paying the consequences.

God, he didn't even notice how bad his physical condition was. His face was drenched in sweat and the bandage that Velvet had placed over his cheek was gone, exposing his bruise to the elements. He was completely out of breath. Jaune was taking in large gulps of air, but his lungs still felt as if someone had poured lava into them.

His legs surrendered to his unexpected fatigue and he crashed onto the ground, limbs sprawled in all directions.

' _I really don't want to die here'_

"Stat - * _pant* -_ Status. . ." he gasped through heavy breaths.

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions:**

 **Bleeding: -1 HP/Second {** _ **Duration: 5 sec**_ **}]**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lien: 100**

 **Level: 2**

 **Exp: 25/ 50**

 **HP: 19/60(+)**

 **MP: 10/10 (+)**

 **ATK: 13 (+)**

 **AGI: 7 (+)**

 **CON: 8 (+)**

 **INT: 10(+)**

 **WIS: 8(+)**

 **LUK: 1(+)**

 **Points: 6**

As much as he hated feeling like his insides were going to blow up, a small tide of relief washed over him as his eyes desperately focused on the screen before him. Closing his eyes, he was met with calm darkness. His eyelids remained shut as he mentally counted up to five. And then a miracle happened.

The searing stinging from his shoulder vanished, replaced with a tolerable aching instead. _'N-No way. . .it couldn't – no shouldn't have worked.'_ He thought in disbelief. Did he really stop bleeding out in just five seconds?

Sure **Bleeding** sucks, but to actually prevent something like that from happening? Was he #1 on some _"Chances to be affected by the supernatural"_ list?

Right now, he had 14 HP remaining, and he definitely felt like it with his body being weighed down by exhaustion. Jaune decided it would be best to just lie here until he could breathe properly.

Hoping for someone to find him was very unlikely. After all, no one answered his pleas for help when he was trapped in that energy barrier. What are the chances of somebody coming to his aid now? Besides, as much as he wanted to be in the hospital getting treatment, Jaune would probably be sent to an insane asylum shortly after. He could picture the conversation in his head:

" _So Jaune, can you tell me what caused you these injuries?" the doctor would ask._

" _Oh gosh golly Doc', here I was minding my own business when suddenly a werewolf comes out of a floating orb and starts attacking me! But don't worry Doc', I killed it with my good ol' trusty baseball bat! Oh, and did I mention my entire perception of reality turned into a video game! Isn't that great?!"_

 _That would be his out-of-character response._

 _. . . Then they'd arrest Qrow for distributing alcohol to a minor._

His breathing had been reduced to a steady rate. Granted his insides were still on fire, but it was manageable. He was tempted to lose consciousness and drift off into the peaceful darkness. But he dismissed that idea believing that it would do more harm than good. His body was functioning below average, but what would happen if he shut down? He'd probably turn into a sculpture the moment he opened his eyes. He needed to get home right now.

That and Weiss would probably castrate him if he didn't be back home to make dinner.

' _Ok Jaune, just take it slow and steady,'_ he thought, carefully lifting his arms up and planting his hands on the floor. His arms trembled tremendously the instant he tried to push himself up. His body was commanding him to submit and stay down, but his mind rebelled against its notion. He brought one of his legs up into a kneeling position; the feeling of gravity doubling over him. But he didn't surrender; Jaune forced himself to stand up with one final mental push against his body. He felt the weight on his body begin to weaken and a surprising amount of energy surged through him.

 **Overcoming your physical limit has increased your CON by 1!**

Although the energy boost wasn't much, his fatigue had been cut down from ' _I-just-survived-a-monster-attack'_ exhausted to ' _I-haven't-slept-in-three-days'_ exhausted.

He placed his fingertips on his shoulder. He immediately flung his arm away when he was met with a stinging ache. The injury may have stopped the bleeding, but it was still there to his dismay. He'll just have to worry about it when he gets home.

He kneeled down to reach for his weapon. That's when something caught his eye. Inches away from the bat was a silver gem that illuminated with a weak glow. A part of him was terrified to interact with this foreign object. After all, he almost died when he decided to touch the Beowulf Gateway. Playing it safe, he used Observe on it first.

 **Reward Gem**

 _ **Rewarded for eliminating a Beowulf. Contains 25 lien.**_

"I-It's just like a video game. . ." he muttered in amazement. He reached over for the gem. But just about when his hand was going to it, the crystal transformed into a sparkling gas and it absorbed itself into his palm. He quickly brought his hand back and inspected it for any change. Thankfully, it remained the same.

A message screen popped up in front of him.

 **Reward Gem acquired! +25 lien added!**

He pulled out his wallet and examined his currency. He couldn't believe it. There was actually 25 lien extra when he counted the total.

"No freaking way."

He wanted to reason that he was crazy. That he somehow found that extra money and forgot all about it. But after having a fight to the death against a monster made out of shadows, anything was possible now. Jaune wasn't crazy; his life truly had become an RPG.

He couldn't help but chuckle at this revelation. To think his stupid luck had caused the supernatural forces to change his reality. The concept sounded so dumb that it would make for a pretty ridiculous fan-fiction.

He aimlessly reached for his bat, not bothering to look at it because he quickly realized that bending his neck generated aching signals to his brain. He set out for his walk home, letting out a groan of irritation for this was truly going to be a test of endurance.

After everything that's happened to him, the boy was sure that it would make a great joke for Yang, ' _A somewhat crazy gamer and a demonic werewolf meet up in an alleyway . . . the werewolf got bludgeoned to death by a baseball bat.'_

* * *

By the time he reached his apartment, he lost all feeling in his legs. And as a cruel joke, fate decided to flip him off and not grant him any additional CON points. Another dose of that energy would do him wonders right now.

He fished for his key in his pocket, but to his dismay, it disappeared. "Sure thing fate," he grumbled, "first you let Cardin beat me up, then you send a monster to kill me, and now you steal my key. You're giving me the greatest day ever, aren't you?"

With no other alternative, he dropped the bat to the side and knocked on the door with his right hand.

No response.

Jaune tried knocking again. He called out through the door, "Weiss, it's me."

Again, no response.

He grunted at his roommate's behavior. "Weiss, c'mon, I know you're in there. You always head straight back home once school is over."

Once again, only silence responded to him. Annoyed, Jaune just kept knocking. He knew that she would give up with the silent treatment eventually.

He heard some shuffling and footsteps from the other side. "Would you stop with that knocking?" she yelled from behind the door.

"Okay, okay," he called back. "Hey, can you open the door for me?"

"Why should I? I understand that you're lazy, but this is taking it to a whole new level." She countered, slight disgust in her tone.

"Look, I lost my key sometime today okay? Just open the door, please?" If only their door's eyehole wasn't blocked with a piece of gum, Weiss would have opened the door the moment she saw his face.

"Oh, so you think you can just get away with being irresponsible and-"

"Weiss, please just listen." He begged. "If you open the door, you'll understand."

There was a brief silence, then the sound of locks releasing was heard. "Alright, what am I supposed to understand-" Weiss' eyes widened and she let out a gasp "- oh my god, Jaune what happened?"

That grim expression on her face – did he really look that bad?

Before he could respond, she immediately grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him into the apartment. For a petite girl, Weiss had a startling amount of strength. She threw him onto the couch and disappeared into the kitchen. Jaune was tempted to turn on the television, but that would definitely lead to a pointless rant with Weiss.

Weiss returned with a bucket and a first-aid kit – wait, when did they get a first aid kit? She set them down on the coffee table. She pulled a cloth out of the bucket and squeezed water out of it, and then went to work on cleaning his face.

' _Well, Weiss did say that a Schnee must be prepared for everything. I guess first-aid must be one of them'_ he thought, _'Though I gotta' admit, for someone who can't make their own meals, it's really ironic.'_

She opened up the kit and brought out a bandage and, of course, the dreaded disinfectant. Jaune really hated that thing. "Hold still, I have to apply the sanitizer before I place the bandage on you."

He expected it to hurt less since he already experienced it, but the moment the rag touched his face, he couldn't help but hiss through gritted teeth from the burning. Great god, it felt even worse and lasted longer than last time! Weiss may have knowledge in this kind of field, but Velvet definitely had more experience.

 **A portion of your injuries had been treated! + 5 HP Restored!**

She let out a sigh as she placed the fuzzy white fabric over his bruise. "Yes, I know it hurts, but act like a man will you?" She commented.

Jaune sniggered a bit, "Your weird sense of humor is always at the wrong time, Weiss. Then again, you didn't really have one until you moved in."

"I blame Yang. She's a terrible influence," was her comeback. She fixed an amused expression on her face, "Besides, you laughed, didn't you?"

"I'd roll on the floor, but I'm kind of hurting everywhere."

There was an awkward silence before that grim look returned again. "Jaune, what happened?"

"Would you believe me if I told you that a werewolf attacked me?"

"This isn't a time to be joking around you idiot." Her eyes narrowed. Well, it was worth a shot. Then again, he probably would have said the same thing if she gave him that response.

Pausing for a moment, he decided to stick with the half-truth. "Okay Weiss, the truth is that I got into a fight with Cardin."

"What? What could have made you do something so stupid? You know he can squash you like an insect."

"He was picking on Velvet." He said.

"You mean that faunus from the gardening club?" Jaune nodded.

"I couldn't just walk away and pretend it never happened. I-I don't know what came over me . . ." he lied on that part. That warm feeling gave him that extra push to stand up for himself. ". . . But I finally decided enough was enough. Luckily for me, Qrow was able to come in and save the day."

Jaune wanted to tell Weiss about the gashes behind his shoulder, but he couldn't think of a way to explain how he got them. Plus, she'd almost certainly call the hospital if she saw something like that. Hospital equals insane asylum, and he wouldn't want that. Right now, the wound was concealed with his back pressed against the couch. He was giving Weiss the best poker face he could muster up with what strength he had left. Fortunately, it was working.

"I understand that, but what I don't understand is why you look exhausted." She inspected his entire body with her eyes. "Sure, that brute hit you hard. But that doesn't lead to you looking as if you had to brawl against some monster and barely getting out of there alive."

Oh the irony.

"T-That's because some guys ambushed me on the way home." He lied, but then he quickly added when he noticed her facial expression, "And before you freak out: no, they didn't give me more injuries. It was just the occasional shove and jabs to the stomach. Oh and that reminds me, can you go get my baseball bat? It's just outside the door."

"Baseball bat?" she inquired. "When did you get a baseball bat?"

"Velvet gave it to me. She said that Cardin's gang might attack me for revenge, so she figured I might as well look intimidating. If it weren't for her, I probably would have a lot more bruises."

She sighed in relief. "Well, you should thank her tomorrow then. That's what a gentleman would do." She left outside to retrieve his weapon.

Taking the opportunity, Jaune decided to get comfortable. He shifted his weight to the side and brought himself into a position with his back on the seat of the couch. He squirmed until the pain around his shoulder was reduced to a minimum.

"I'm just going to leave it by the door." She called out as a faint sound of metal against wood was heard. When she returned, Weiss raised an eyebrow. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to take a well-deserved nap." He said.

"On the sofa? You have a bed, remember?"

"My legs stopped working, plus I'm already in a comfortable position." He yawned.

"You mean to tell me after all that, you still want to be lazy? Jaune, for crying out loud, your room is just a couple of steps away from where you're loafing!" she shook her head in frustration.

"One hour? Just give me one hour for my body to recharge itself." He raised his index finger in the air. "Then I'll go get myself cleaned up and prepare dinner. Heck, I'll even let you pick what we're having for today."

Weiss smirked at his proposal. "Well, I haven't had spaghetti in awhile. . . Alright, you got yourself a deal. But if I see that you're still asleep, I'm going to pour that bucket all over you."

"Aye aye, captain Schnee." He waved her a mock salute before leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling.

"I have an essay to finish, so I'm going back to my room."

As quiet footsteps rang through his ears, Jaune finally remembered his manners. "Hey, roommate?"

The sound of feet moving stopped. He could have sworn he heard her letting out a breath. "What is it now?"

"Thanks for – you know, treating my bruise. I really appreciate it."

There was a short stillness in the air. ". . . If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." Then the thud of a door closing was heard.

Finally, he was alone.

' _It's actually funny now that I think about it. The one thing I had a passion for takes full control of my reality and transforms it into a real life video game. The kind where I'm some kind of hero whose job is to slay monsters. . .'_

In a weary whisper, he opened up the Status screen.

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions: Normal]**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lien: 125**

 **Level: 2**

 **Exp: 25/ 50**

 **HP: 29/65(+)**

 **MP: 10/10 (+)**

 **ATK: 13 (+)**

 **AGI: 7 (+)**

 **CON: 9 (+)**

 **INT: 10(+)**

 **WIS: 8(+)**

 **LUK: 1(+)**

 **Points: 6**

His finger reached for the desired stat.

' _But if that's the case. . .'_

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions: Normal]**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lien: 125**

 **Level: 2**

 **Exp: 25/ 50**

 **HP: 29/65(+)**

 **MP: 10/10 (+)**

 **ATK: 19 (+6) (-)**

 **AGI: 7 (+)**

 **CON: 9 (+)**

 **INT: 10(+)**

 **WIS: 8(+)**

 **LUK: 1(+)**

 **Points: 0**

 **Confirm?**

 **[Yes] [No]**

He pressed on **[Yes]** , and with a smile, he drifted off into a peaceful slumber.

' _. . . I'm going to win this game my way.'_

* * *

 **You want some cheese to go along with that? Anyways, that whole interaction between Weiss and Jaune was to further establish their relationship as friends/ roommates. What I mean is that although Jaune refers to Weiss as his 'Cold roommate who makes his life miserable', I didn't want to completely define her as a 2D-character. I also wanted to portray that Weiss isn't in full fault either; Jaune also has cons to deal with. Their friendship is like, "We annoy each other but that means we care about each other." Plus if you've been living under the same roof with someone for 3-4 years, you're bound to warm up. Anyways, if you haven't spotted my update pattern, it's monthly around the 20-30 day period.**

 **One more thing (though it's mostly directed towards fellow writers): if you're going to review, I'd appreciate if you added advice regarding what I could do to improve my writing either at the end or beginning of your review. You can relate how frustrating it can be when your projected words don't match the picture in your imagination.**

 **Well, that's all, have a nice day.**


	5. Rise and Shine

**Heya. It's been awhile hasn't it? So last chapter (which was a month ago), I said that I updated between the range of day 20-30 of the next month. Guess I skipped out on April huh? I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses for my absence, but things have been** _ **stressful**_ **if that's how I would describe it.  
**

* * *

Just like she said, Weiss kept her promise and poured the bucket of ice water all over the sleeping blond, much to his displeasure. The annoying part was that Jaune only slept for an extra minute. Seriously, how strict could Weiss get? Despite being drenched, it gave Jaune the perfect chance to change his clothes and conceal that disgusting gash that the Beowulf gave him.

Making dinner had suddenly become a challenge for him. The left side of his shoulder was still sore as hell, making it impossible to even lift his arm. As a result, Jaune was stuck with cooking with only his right hand. Since Weiss didn't know anything about the fine cuisine of the kitchen, she assumed that some new technique Jaune was trying. Who knew making spaghetti with only one arm would be so difficult?

' **Cooking' level has gone up by 1!**

' _I'm definitely sure that this game is insulting me.'_

The moment he placed the plate of food on the table, he retreated back into his room to try and relax on his bed. Weiss, being the caring-yet-indirect roommate that she was, tried to convince him to come back and enjoy their meal together. Even if her message was covered by layers of insults, it was nice knowing that she cared.

He simply waved her off, telling her that was he was dead tired and was going to call it a day.

"Jaune, it's only 9 o'clock!" she pointed out, leaning against the doorframe to his room. His response was simply muffled moaning under his pillow. At that point, Weiss let out an irritated sigh and left Jaune alone.

Finding a comfortable position to silence the pain around his shoulder was easier than before. Jaune was going to have to treat it himself tomorrow morning without Weiss noticing. Whatever, that's Tomorrow Jaune's problem. He closed his eyes and drifted off into a dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.

* * *

He jerked his eyes wide open.

Jaune was never a morning person, but right now he felt like he just ingested 50kg of pure sugar. He tried to close his eyes and go back to sleep, but he felt so energetic right now! Was this the Game's doing? Jaune was so exhausted from yesterday that he completely forgot to find out more on the Game's mechanics.

He turned his head to the alarm clock: 5 o'clock.

. . . What?

But he was feeling so dead yesterday – why wake up so early? To make matters stranger, his body felt lighter. Which shouldn't be the case after what he went through yesterday. For crying out loud, he should be sore everywhere right now! There was no point in trying to sleep. The magical sugar rush made sure of that.

Letting out a groan, Jaune threw off his bed sheets and got out of bed. He carefully tiptoed his way into the kitchen and quietly searched the cupboards for the first-aid kit. If he managed to wake Weiss in this hour, Jaune was sure that he'd never be able to walk properly ever again once he'd embraced her wrath.

Of course, thanks to his ridiculously terrible luck, the kit _had_ to be in the last cupboard.

He went into the bathroom and flicked the switch. He blinked a couple of times to adjust to the sudden white flash. As he laid the kit on the floor, he glanced at the mirror's reflection.

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Lv 2**

It was still a shock for him. To think – he, Jaune Arc, actually got the ability to live his life like an RPG. It seemed like something too good to be true. Really, it's not every day you wake up to question your sanity, only to find out after a fight with a monster that you have superpowers.

He blinked in realization. During the entire time he got out of bed and went to the bathroom – not once did his shoulder cry out in agony. He sluggishly raised his left arm, expecting a sudden jolt to surprise him. But nothing happened. Jaune then brought his right hand over to touch it. Again, nothing happened.

He immediately took off his t-shirt and looked over the area where he had apparently received his injury. To his surprise, the claw mark vanished. There were no visible scars; it was just normal looking skin.

He put his shirt back on and leaned towards the mirror, Jaune gradually took off the bandage over his cheek. A small chuckle escaped his lips. The bruise was gone!

Just like a video game, he healed overnight!

"That's insane," he muttered in disbelief. A sudden thought entered his mind as he stared at the mirror. _'No one just heals a bruise in just one day'_. That would lead to too many questions. Jaune wasn't sure what Weiss' reaction would be if she saw him with a clean face in the morning, but he suspected it would involve a frying pan and a bucket of holy water.

"A week with this thing on wouldn't raise suspicion." He placed the bandage back on. Well, he had 3 hours to kill before he had to make breakfast. He could play video games in his room and let time fly by. But in his current energetic state, it felt impossible to sit down for even five minutes. "What should I do now?"

And then genius struck him. This was the perfect opportunity to test out his new ability! If he was going to play the game his way, he might as well get fully adjusted beforehand. _'Okay! I'll just head to my room and - . . . dammit'_

Jaune remembered that the system revolved around his voice. Even if he could whisper the commands, the excess energy in his system would eventually force him to scream in excitement. God, why did he have to be one of those gamers who got hyped up so easily?

He ran a hand through his messy hair as he thought of a solution. "I could always go outside. . ." he muttered. Actually, that sounded like a good idea. He could maintain his excitement by walking around the town and he wouldn't wake up the entire population either. "Aw what the heck," he decided, "I got energy to burn off anyway."

* * *

The island of Patch was blissfully quiet at this time of the hour. The only thing apparent to him was the tapping of his shoes against concrete. The dark sky was covered with clouds, making it impossible to see any hint of blue. It would probably take another hour for the morning sun to rise. The air around him was fresh and the faint rustling of nature filled his ears as a soft gust of wind flew past him. Yeah, this would make the perfect scenery for a zombie-apocalypse game.

Jaune didn't have a particular destination in mind. Just wandering around seemed enough to calm his morning nerves. Well, time to get to work. "Status."

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions: Normal]**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lien: 125**

 **Level: 2**

 **Exp: 25/ 50**

 **HP: 65/65**

 **MP: 10/10**

 **ATK: 19**

 **AGI: 7**

 **CON: 9**

 **INT: 10**

 **WIS: 8**

 **LUK: 1**

 **Points: 0**

"Huh? I never noticed that before." His eyes were over the Experience section. **25/ 50.** Killing that Beowulf must have granted him that amount. "So it's either completing quest or killing mobs – just give me some rare candy that instantly levels me up and I'm good to go."

Now onto the more serious matter on hand. His Attack stat: a _pathetic_ **19**. With his battles against Cardin and the Beowulf, Jaune was positive that his increased strength wasn't significant enough. And that was just stupid. During the early stages of any RPG video game, a glass cannon character would have been able to one-hit the mobs. Granted, accidently killing Cardin would be overkill for his morals, but it would be appreciated if the Game followed basic logic.

So far, repeated physical effort was the only thing that raised the stat. But there had to be other ways to increase it. Would running work, or would that increase his Agility instead? Or would that activity increase both? _'I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.'_

He transformed his leisurely pace into a swift jog. He set his checkpoint all the way to the building of Signal, which would take him about half an hour to get there at his current speed. His mind didn't wander as his full attention was getting to the imaginary finish line. His breathing had become a metronome of consecutive inhales and exhales. He could feel the beads of sweat fall from his face as he embraced the morning breeze rushing against him.

Under normal conditions, Jaune would have collapsed from exhaustion in less than 10 minutes. But right now, even more energy began to pump through his veins. If this is what a morning person feels like every time the sun rises then Jaune definitely could get used to this.

 **Running for a considerate amount of time has increased you AGL by 1!**

He broke into a sprint after reading the message, the motivation it gave him driving him to do better. The feeling of exhilaration grew bigger with each passing second. Time seemed to slow down, or rather Jaune seemed to lose track of time. He wasn't sure if a minute or 15 minutes had passed. The edges around his field of view began to blur. The houses and trees he dashed by looked like blobs of distorted colour. His breathing had increased dramatically and his leg muscles grew lighter with each leaping step he took. The only sounds that rang through his ears were his rapid footsteps, his breathing, and that increasingly loud barking. Wait . . . barking?

Jaune's suddenly lost his balance as something tackled him to the side. He groaned in pain as he collided onto the pavement. He felt a light weight on top of his body. He could feel it shuffling towards his neck. _'Dear god, was another Beowulf attacking me?! But that doesn't make any sense, I didn't notice any floating glowing orbs at all-'_

His thoughts were cut off when a spongy-yet-wet substance slid off of his cheek. _'Smells like...cookies. Oh it's just-'_

"Zwei, no!" a high-pitched voice squeaked at the corgi on top of him. "How many times do I have to remind you? NO ASSAULTING THE MILK MAN!" The milk man? Monty Oum, that sounds like the name of a serial killer from some cheesy horror movie.

Jaune's azure eyes shifted to the voice. He saw a petite girl wearing black sweat pants with a white loose tank top which showed off her bare shoulders. The weak lighting made her creamy skin pop out more in contrast to the background. Her black shoulder-length hair was so disheveled that Jaune could easily pick out the red tints sticking out. Her silver eyes, filled with worry, stared directly at him. But what stuck out to Jaune the most was the crimson scarf wrapped around her neck.

 _ **Red Prodigy**_

 **Ruby Rose**

 **Lv 6**

Yang's adorable little sister and Jaune's first friend at Signal, Ruby Rose. She was a kind, yet innocent girl. But don't let appearances fool you. Despite the fact that she was two years younger than him, Ruby was in the same grade as him. Just like her title stated, Ruby was a prodigy. At first, their classmates looked down on her as someone who didn't deserve to be here (ironic in his case, isn't it?). But Ruby quickly diminished their doubts as soon as she displayed her talents in both physical and mental subjects. Heck, Jaune was sure that Ruby would have graduated a year earlier if her social skills were satisfactory.

And then there was that red scarf. From the time he met her, Jaune could only recall a couple of times where she never had that wrapped around her neck. Even then, it would take mere seconds before she would put it back on. The condition of the accessory was perfect, almost as if she just bought it yesterday from a classy store. But despite their time as friends, she never told him why she wore it all the time. It didn't bother him, really. If he died not knowing her reason, he'd be fine with that. Maybe that's why her title was named like that.

But on a more serious note: Does everyone on this island out level him!?

"I-I'm so sorry, Mr. Milkman!" she pried the dog away from Jaune's face. As Jaune got up, he noticed that Ruby was rambling an apology to him, "ImsosorrypleaseforgivemeitwasyangsfaultpleasegivememilkIjustwanttogrowup!" Quite fast too. He shifted his view to the right and realized that he was standing in front of Ruby's house. How fast was he running?

"I . . ." Jaune didn't really know what to say right now, and he wasn't sure if she could hear him. Once Ruby Rose starts rambling, it was hard for her to calm down. It made it even harder to get her attention because her eyes were pointed to the ground. Shrugging at the situation, he tapped Ruby over the shoulder.

She looked up and her eyes widened, "…Jaune?"

"Hi. I'd say good morning but the sun is playing hide and seek right now."

"J-Jaune?!" she pointed an accusing finger at him, "T-there's no way you could be Jaune!"

Jaune raised an eyebrow from confusion, "What?"

"The real Jaune would never be able to wake up this early, let alone go outside!" Zwei, who was wrapped around her arms, happily barked along in agreement. Jaune's eyes narrowed at the dog. _'Traitor, stop trying to encourage her.'_

He looked back to Ruby. He gave her a smug smile, "You caught me. I'm actually the milkman. And I'm here to deliver milk to –" He brought up his hands in a way to mimic an imaginary clipboard and pen "– a _Ms. Craterface_?"

Ah, chemistry class with Ruby, the incident where their friendship blossomed.

Ruby stumbled back at the name. "W-Wha-? Jaune, it really is you!" She let out a small yelp as she pinched herself. "And I'm not dreaming either!"

Jaune laughed at her antics. "But why are you outside so early? School doesn't start for another 3 hours." She asked. 3 hours? Was he outside for an hour? But it only felt like a couple of minutes!

"I think your hyperactive energy is contagious, Ruby. I woke at 5 in the morning feeling like I just ate an entire plate of Yang's cookies and you know how much sugar she puts in those things. They're practically heart-attacks condensed as sweets."

She rolled her eyes at the comment. "C'mon Jaune, they're not _that_ sweet." Of course she'd say that. Nothing was never too sweet for her. She noticed the bandage on his face. "Hey, what's with the bandage?"

He sighed. "Long story short, I stood up for someone and the bully pummeled me. But it's fine now, your uncle saved the day." Her eyes lit up like fireworks.

"Wow, Jaune that's amazing! You're a hero!"

"W-Well, I wouldn't stretch it that far," Jaune mumbled while scratching the back of his head. This was another characteristic of Ruby. She was obsessed with heroes. Like, it didn't have to be a knight in shining armor or a hobo with an arm. If you saved someone out of heroism, Ruby would surely make a big deal over it.

She pouted in response. "C'mon Jaune, there's no need to be humble! So after the bully was taken care of, did the person say thanks? Oh! Oh! Was the person a girl?" She gasped at her declaration and let out a shrill squeal. "Did she kiss you and offer her hand for marri-"

Jaune placed his hands over her mouth. "Ok, let's not over exaggerate this! Yes, she's a girl. No, she didn't do that. Calm down and..." he glared at her for a second before continuing in a whisper, "...You're fantasizing about me in a wedding aren't you?"

" _mmmf...mfmmf...mmmmf"_ she muffled through his hands. His eye twitched slightly when he felt an increasing heat around her cheek.

"I'll take that as a yes." He put his hands down. "I have a question for you, Ruby. What are _you_ doing up so early?"

Zwei let out a bark and looked up at Ruby. She smiled back and gently let him down. "Well, I'm usually awake around this hour. Unlike the rest of my family, I'm the only one who's a morning person. Seriously Jaune, how could they just lie there in bed when there's so much to be done!"

"So what exactly needs to be done?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Why, morning exercise of course!" She cupped her hands into his, her silver eyes glittering sparkles. Judging from her expression, Jaune knew what was going to happen next. Why did he have to ask her? "Hey, I got an idea! Why don't you join me on my jog? I mean, I saw you running like a madman before Zwei jumped on you. And we have so much time too! C'mon, the more the merrier right?"

"Well..." Like all his interactions with the hyperactive teen, Jaune had no idea what he was getting into. Wasn't the whole point of going outside in the first place was to further discover the hidden depths of his new found abilities? Sure, 2 hours may seem like a lot of time but...

 **Quest Available!**

 **Rise and Shine! :** _ **Every morning person needs their exercise. Ruby Rose is no exception! Join in her run and keep up with her!**_

 **Time Limit: 30 minutes**

 **Completion Reward: 75 Exp**

 **Failure: None.**

 **Quest Conditions: Stay within 10 meters with Ruby Rose!**

 **[Accept] [Decline]**

... It's more than enough for a friend!

75 Exp. That's the most he's seen so far! He could level up with this quest, plus gain another 50 additional EXP as well! If she asked him to run with her in the past, he would have declined due to his pitiful endurance. But with what he just did now – how hard can that be? "I _accept_ your invitation Ruby."

And just with that one word, the **[Accept]** button was pushed by an invisible force, and the Quest screen closed itself.

"That's fantastic Jaune! I knew there was an early bird in you!" Ruby cheered with her fist raised high.

 _Or a supernatural force._ He inwardly smirked.

His eyes slightly widened at the new entity above Ruby's head. The title was still present, but above the text was a downward arrow pointing at her. Above the arrow was a number: **0.5 m**. He assumed that it represented some sort of distance indicator.

"So where are we running?"

"Well, I usually just go around the neighborhood and get back here by half an hour." She answered while pointing her finger in a direction to which he could only assume was where they'd start their run. She gave him a smirk, "So, you ready to start?"

"Wait, shouldn't we stretch first-" But Jaune couldn't finish his sentence as the young girl went for a mad sprint in the designated direction. To his shock, Zwei had also abandoned him and was somehow keeping up with Ruby. Seriously, what are they feeding that corgi?

"C'mon Jaune, keep up!"

 **Warning!**

 **You are too far away from the quest target! Time before failure: 10 sec**

"Oh come on!" he cried out, putting all his energy into legs as he sprinted towards her. Morning exercise she says. The more the merrier she says. 'How hard can it be?' he says. Fate really wasn't on his side today...or any day, really.

Once again, the sound of wind howling was the only thing his ears could pick up as the image of a red scarf grew closer and closer. It had taken Jaune a surprisingly short amount of time to return to this stimulated state of adrenaline; strange, but as long as he completed the quest, he couldn't care at this point. The **Warning** screen closed itself once Jaune got into the appropriate distance with Ruby.

"When you said that we were running, I didn't actually think that we would be _running_!" he complained through short breaths. Morning runs were supposed to be like lazy jogs, not tournament marathons!

"Running?" she glanced over to see him through the corner of her silver eyes. "Jaune, this is my jogging pace!" Jaune almost lost his footing when Ruby explained that to him. For a second, he assumed that she was joking around. But, the way she projected her voice. It sounded excited, filled with enthusiasm; which is what Ruby usually sounds like. And that was what made it so wrong in this situation! She sounded _normal_. How much cardio had this girl been doing?! Hell, her agility stats must be off the charts if this was her jogging pace!

 **Recovering your momentum has increased your AGL by 1!**

Pushing himself a little further, the blond increased his speed until he was now running side by side with her. _'It's ok, all I have to do is keep up with her and make sure that she doesn't outrun me.'_

Well, THAT was the plan until he heard a soft giggle from beside him. He wasn't going to turn his head; Jaune wasn't going to risk tripping and screwing the quest up. He needed the EXP because he needed to get the points to evolve his ATK stat! "Oh, I get it! You wanna race me, don't you?"

"W-What, no!" he protested...only to realize that she was now ahead of him in a blink of an eye.

A normal person would have given up after witnessing that acceleration. Good thing Jaune Arc wasn't normal. No, he simply forced himself to try even harder. There was no way he could get close to her at his current level. But that's fine. All Jaune had to do was to stay within the 9.9m mark, and he'd complete the quest.

With the sound of feet hitting against concrete, Jaune chased the girl and dog through the neighborhood of Patch. His determination to level up was the only thing that kept him going.

* * *

He didn't know how he achieved it, but Jaune had made it. Granted, his lungs weren't doing so well. And more or less he felt like he had been stabbed from the inside with a fork dipped in acid. Where did that morning energy suddenly disappear to? It's as if the Game wanted him to suffer at the most unexpected of times!

Of course, Ruby had gotten there before him. But racing her was never his intention. Barely keeping up while making sure that he stayed at the edge of the quest's boundary; that was where his priorities lied.

Jaune was currently lying down in front of Ruby's house, limbs spread out while his chest pushed inward and outward to regulate his desperate breathing. The only comfort he had at the moment was the tickling sensation of grass interacting with his backside.

' _Now all I have to do is to wait for the completion screen to pop up and-'_

His thoughts were abruptly cut off as a glass of water was spilled all over him. Needless to say, he got up and glared at the girl who was responsible.

"Aw don't give me that look, Jaune." Ruby pouted, "You looked like you were going to pass out!"

"And who's to blame for that?" He raised an annoyed eyebrow at her.

Ruby let out a nervous chuckle. "In my defense, I felt really excited when I saw you close to me. Seriously Jaune, I'm impressed! I never knew you were capable of running that fast. I mean, it would take you a million years before you'd outrun me! No offense, but I always assumed that you were a slow runner since you're a shut-in – I mean _dedicated_ gamer."

Now his eye was twitching. "Why you little-"

 **Quest Completed!**

 **Received Reward!**

"Okay, never mind! I forgive you!" He yelled, all animosity in his expression disappearing.

 **You leveled up!**

 **Would you like to edit your stats now?**

 **[Yes] [Later]**

"Wh-What?" Ruby jumped back from his sudden outburst. "Jaune, are you okay?"

"Hmmm...ask me that question _later_ , Ruby. You know, maybe after I don't feel like kicking the bucket." He'd edit his stats later. No need to look crazy in front of his friend.

"Wait a second..." She narrowed her eyes at him, "why did you add so much emphasis on the word "later"?"

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about?" He lied.

"Is this some kind of inside joke between you and Yang?"

"I'm sorry what?"

"Yesterday, she said it the same way you did when I asked her to check our food inventory-"

She was immediately cut off when Jaune's hands found themselves firmly gripped on her bare shoulders. "J-Jaune?"

"Say that last part again." He said in a serious voice.

"Um...I asked her to check our food inventory?"

Jaune's body trembled as he processed the last word that Ruby spoke. He slowly brought his hands to his face and a faint laughter emitted from his lips. "I..n..vent...ory"

"Jaune, a-are you sure you're alright? We can go inside and-"

"OH MY GOD, I'M AN IDIOT!"

 **Realizing your level of obliviousness has increased your INT by 1!**

' _SHUT UP YOU STUPID GAME!'_

* * *

 **I usually add something at the end here. So uh...thank you for the 400 followers. I didn't really expect it to grow that much. Next chapter is going to do with grinding and an actual introduction to the plot. Might be uploaded at the end of May, but who knows with my schedule.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and have a wonderful day!**


	6. To-Do List: Strip, Train, Get Robbed

**I'm done high school exams. Done high school graduation. Done high school prom. Now I have the whole summer to myself, no more English summer school for me! I don't know if I'll be updating more frequently, might find a job or go on vacation. Plus, I'm not sure how my updates will be like in September when I head off for university. I've heard a lot of ghost stories that university is the place where fanfic writers die from the workload.**

 **So, if you guys haven't forgotten me, here's an extra long chapter for my 2-month absence, plus an omake!**

* * *

"I'm an idiot..." Jaune mumbled in a defeated tone, a hand covering his face in shame. "I really am an idiot..." He repeated again, slowly opening the door to his apartment to ensure that the creaking from the rusted hinges didn't wake Weiss up. Thankfully, his luck decided to give him a break. A depressing sigh came out of his mouth as he headed straight for the couch. He fell face-forward and went through the memory of what just happened earlier.

" _Jaune, is something wrong?" Ruby asked with concerned eyes directed to the blond. "I really think we should head inside. If something's bothering you, we can talk about it if you want. I can even wake up Yang if you need more support! Sure, she'll be really grumpy about it at first, but she'll do anything to help out a friend!" Zwei barked in agreement. "See? Even Zwei wants to help!"_

' _ **Oh Ruby, if you only knew... no "comprehended" what I'm going through right now...'**_ _his thoughts echoed_ _ **.**_

" _I-It's nothing Ruby...I just...left the refrigerator running back home." He responded, not bothering to realize how utterly stupid that sounded._

" _B-But Jaune, aren't refrigerators supposed to be on-" the Red Prodigy was cut off as Jaune placed his index finger over her lips. She squeaked in response. Her silver eyes had seemingly widened in shock at what her friend was doing._

" _Shhh," Jaune hissed with a blank expression on his face. His tone was a soft whisper, almost resembling a mother tending to her newborn child. "My refrigerator is running, Ruby. I need to go home and ensure that the milkman hasn't raided it. I'll see you at school." He released his finger and turned to the direction of his apartment. He didn't turn back to observe her reaction, however, the message screen in front of him was enough to convince him that Ruby wasn't going to pursue him and his sanity._

' _ **Speech' level has gone up by 1!**_

 _At that moment Jaune knew that the rest of his day was going to suck._

He reached for a cushion and screamed directly into it. His muffled yells were the only thing he could hear in the quiet apartment. God, did he really say that crap to Ruby? And did she actually believe him?! For Oum's sake, his **Speech** skill was only level 5 during that time! Lying, Jaune could understand – but outright saying nonsense like that?! Heck, Jaune was certain that he would be able to convince the entire world that the sky was actually purple if his **Speech** level was just level 50!

But on to important matters – how long was he playing video games? He recalled fond memories of his 2-year old stubby arms wrapped around one of his father's choking hazard wired controllers. He could also recall other pleasant memories of his gaming experience. And yet, despite that, Jaune was beginning to question if he really had the right to call himself a gamer.

" _Inventory_ " – how... just how could he possibly forget about something so crucial in RPGs!? He had a collection of video games in his closet for crying out loud! "I'm an idiot..." he moaned again through the cushion.

Jaune remained in his depressed state for another five minutes before he got up into a sitting position. "Well...might as well see what the inventory system looks like." He grumbled in surrender. "Inventory."

A large rectangular message box appeared in front of him. An exact replica of himself, its arms spread out in like a bird and its legs together like a saluting soldier, was covering half of the screen. It wore the exact same clothes as him and beside each piece of clothing was a button-like text box indicating their names: **[T-shirt] [Shorts]**. Beside "mannequin Jaune" was an array of blank spaces with square frames around them. Those must be the inventory spaces. There were 5 rows, each with a set of 10 boxes in each, adding up to a total of 50 available inventory spaces.

As much as Jaune wanted to jump out of the building for his stupidity, he was also intrigued with the mechanics behind the inventory screen in front of him. How exactly would he be able to use these spaces? He reached for the T.V remote on the coffee table and put it in his pocket. Despite his action, his inventory still remained empty.

"Maybe if I click on one of the spaces..." he extended his finger at first box. To his surprise, the moment his fingertip touched the space, the entire inventory screen "rippled". It was sort of like that effect where you threw a tiny pebble in a lake of still water. He retracted his hand away and watched in fascination before the screen returned to normal a few seconds after. He tapped the screen again and the same ripple effect occurred. "Hmm... what if I..." Jaune sent his arm through the transparent screen. Well, he thought it was transparent until he noticed that half his arm was missing.

"Alright Jaune, you're going to retract your arm now and when you do, it's still going to be there." He tried to reassure himself in a semi-terrified tone. There was no way he could explain to his roommate that a transparent screen that only he could see ate his arm. Not even **Speech** was going to get him out of that situation.

When he pulled it out, he quickly inspected his arm. He checked for any odd changes and flexed his fingers to make sure that they still worked. A sigh of relief was released when his arm passed his inspection. Thank the heavens that he could still play video games.

' _I think I have an idea on how this thing works.'_ Jaune thought, bringing the remote out of his pocket. _'Let's just use a test subject to make sure.'_ He sent the remote through the screen. He released the device from his grip and pulled his arm out. A second later, the first box emitted a faint light before the image of the remote replaced the empty space. "I have my own personal spatial pocket." He confirmed his hypothesis. Jaune grinned like a madman when he realized the benefits of having this. He could practically store any useful object he wanted and not have to worry about it getting stolen!

"Wait," another idea came to him, "What if storing stuff isn't the only thing this system can do?" He reached forward to tap on the picture of the remote, but when his finger got close to the image, more options appeared beside the box.

 **[Observe]**

 **[Sell]**

He made a gesture towards the **[Observe]** button.

 **Television Remote**

 _ **A tool used to change channels. It appears that the batteries need to be changed, but knowing how lazy society has become, you'll probably just buy a new one won't you?**_

 **Durability: Good**

 **Damage: N/A**

Jaune wanted to try out the **[Sell]** option as well, but he didn't know if the Game would immediately sell it for who-knows how much lien or would just prompt a confirmation for him beforehand. He picked the safer option; there was no way he was going to the store to buy another remote.

The blond reached into the screen once more and felt the shape of the remote grasped around his fingers. He pulled it out and set it back on the coffee table. Looking back at the screen, he noticed that the box had become empty again.

A sparkle caught the corner of his eye from across the room. Leaning against the wall beside the door was the silhouette of his baseball bat. He was so caught up in the morning that he completely forgot about it. Actually, now that he thought about it, the last time he actually looked at it was when he fought against the Beowulf. After that, he didn't even bother to give it a glance until now. Jaune got up from the couch and retrieved his weapon. His fingers felt the chilling sensation of cold steel as he inspected it. Even if the room was poorly lit, he could still make out the various dents around his weapon.

"Observe."

 **Metal Baseball Bat**

 **Grimm Kills: 1**

 _ **A tool that has only one purpose: Hitting stuff. If you've been using it as a shovel, then you should go see a therapist or something.**_

 **Durability: Poor [Repair?]**

 **Damage: 5**

Ok that was new. The sudden drop in durability was expected but **Grimm Kills** seemed really redundant in his opinion. When he played video games, Jaune didn't care much for statistics. If anything, it was more like a " _Times you've nearly died_ " accumulation.

The weapon's damage dropped from a solid 10 to 5. Judging from observations, Jaune concluded that damage and durability were directly proportional to each other. So if he wanted the damage to increase, durability had to be increased. He selected the **[Repair?]** button with his finger.

 **It will cost 100 lien to fully repair. But since this is your first time, you can have a freebie.**

 **[Accept] [Decline]**

Freebie? Actually, let's move on from that and focus on the real issue at hand: 100 lien to repair?! "Why? J-Just why would _you_ cheat me?" He mumbled in frustration. "I can buy the same one for 20 at the market...stupid game."

Then again, gamer's logic did dictate: " _If something's free, you should take it and let it rot in your inventory space."_ Shrugging in mild acceptance, Jaune tapped on the **[Accept]** button. The screen closed itself and a faint blue glow emitted from the weapon in hand. A brief moment passed and azure eyes gazed upon a fully repaired bat. He inspected it, looking at the bat at every angle. Not a single dent was present. Heck, it looked as if it was just made from the factory and ready to be shipped off. He observed the bat.

 **Metal Baseball Bat**

 **Grimm Kills: 1**

 _ **A tool that has only one purpose: Hitting stuff. If you've been using it as a shovel, then you should go see a therapist or something.**_

 **Durability: Excellent**

 **Damage: 15**

Jaune opened up his Inventory and stored the bat in his pocket dimension. As expected, the empty box was replaced with an image of the object.

His eyes moved toward the miniature version of himself on the screen. It was kinda like looking at mirror...except the reflection was way smaller and it stood like a statue with its arms outstretched. When he tapped on the box labeled **[T-shirt]** , the same thing occurred when he inspected the TV remote.

 **[Observe]**

 **[Un-equip]**

 **[Sell]**

"I wonder what would happen if I tapped on the smaller version of me?" He wondered out loud.

His curiosity morphed into apparent disappointment when the only option given to him was **[Un–equip All]**. Seriously, why would that even be an option? You have nothing to gain from losing all your clothes! "Pft, Yang would probably disagree if she knew about this button..." he half-joked-half-realized. "Really, when would I ever use th- _ACHOO!"_ he suddenly sneezed.

That was when he heard it.

The quiet sound of blankets being thrown away, the gentle steps of bare feet on wood, that faint growl containing the smallest ounce of bloodlust. _"Crap... I woke her up."_

The door to Weiss' room was slammed open as said roommate stomped out. She sluggishly looked around the apartment, searching for whatever disturbed her blissful slumber. Jaune gulped as their eyes met. Despite being half awake, Weiss' eyes pertained a disastrous blizzard behind that light tone of blue. Yup, nothing greater in the morning than a pissed-off roommate.

"Jaune, do you have any idea what time it is- " her tired eyes suddenly widened; now fully awake and definitely in shock of some sort. Not only that, but her entire face gradually became redder as each second passed. "W-Wha-What are you wearing?!" She shrieked, quickly bringing a hand to cover her eyes.

"What are you talking about-" he looked down and realized Weiss' dilemma. "...oh."

The real question was: What wasn't he wearing?

His T-shirt and shorts that he was wearing a moment ago suddenly poofed out of existence, leaving behind only a pair of underwear to cover his dignity. Oh god, he must have accidentally tapped on that damn button when he sneezed.

He instinctively brought his hands down to cover his testicular region. "W-Weiss, I-I can explain!"

"Like hell you can!"

Explain? How the in the name of Monty is he going to explain to his roommate that a built-in gaming system stole his clothes?

Should he put his faith in his lying skills? If the speech skill could convince Ruby that the local milkman was a fridge burglar, then surely it could save him from Weiss, right?

"S-See, here's the thing...uh...you're...ah- dreaming! Y-Yeah! You're actually still asleep and this is all just a dream! A-And I'm actually a manifestation of your conscience! Jaune is such a nice guy y'know? He pays the rent, buys the groceries with his money, and makes meals for you every day. You should really be more grateful to him." Okay so maybe the last bit was selfish, but the smallest break from Weiss would be the greatest gift ever.

Yup, any moment now, a screen stating that his Speech level increased would pop up.

...Any second now.

 _ANY SECOND NOW._

It wasn't until five seconds of silence later that Jaune knew, he fuc-

"Do you honestly think I'll fall for that crap?! Who do you take me for – Ruby?!" She yelled back at him, her eyes closed and cheeks as red as Ruby's scarf.

"Oh...uh-" Jaune slowly began to back away. Before Jaune could explain any further, he felt a sharp pain erupt from his forehead as a frying pan was flung at his face. " _OW_! Where- how did you even- WHY did you even- "

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON, YOU PERVERT!"

" _OW!_ OKAY, I GET IT, CALM DOWN! NO, DON'T THROW THAT- _"_

Indeed, it was just an average morning at the Arc and Schnee residence.

* * *

Jaune let out a long yawn as he woke up from his nap. He sat up slowly, wiping his neck and hair, both peppered with grains of sand. Let it be known that the only benefit of living on the outskirts of this town was that one was closest to the shoreline. If Jaune ever wanted to be alone, as in " _complete-isolation-alone"_ , then Patch's shoreline would always welcome him with open arms. It was a fifteen-minute walk from the apartment, and through a maze of natural forestry, but it was at all times worth the trip. With the cool breeze that the sea provided and the gentle sound of the movement of its waves, Jaune treated this place as a secret paradise.

He sighed as he dusted himself off.

After the _incident_ with Weiss, the entire day at Signal had become extremely awkward and more tiresome than usual. Perhaps it was the fact that his roommate refused to neither meet his gaze nor utter a word when he tried to break the ice through a meaningful conversation. Maybe it was those death glares that Cardin and his crew were giving him during lunch. Or it could be the fact that he ended up waiting for a good two hours at the garden to talk to Velvet just like he promised. He would have been there the entire night if he didn't stumble upon a note beneath the bench where Velvet was treating his injuries.

He took it out of his pocket and read it again.

" _Dear Jaune_

 _...Sorry, if you're reading this and you're not Jaune Arc, can you please put it back where you found it. Thank you! If you are Jaune, then keep reading! :)_

 _Hey Jaune, I know you promised that you'd be here at the garden today, but something really urgent at work came up so I'm going to have to reschedule. Sorry! XD_

 _Your friend, Velvet."_

The rest of the page was filled with...what did Ruby call them again...chibis? It was filled with smaller versions of Velvet in various positions. (Jaune was positive that the picture of Velvet nibbling on a giant strawberry would make Ruby squeal).

"I'll put you in here for safe keeping," he said, putting the note into his inventory. He then proceeded to pull the baseball bat of the transparent screen. "Relaxation time is out of the way, now for the second reason as to why I'm here. Status."

 **Name: Jaune Arc [Conditions: Normal]**

 **Title: N/A**

 **Class: The Gamer**

 **Lien: 125**

 **Level: 3**

 **Exp: 50/ 75**

 **HP: 65/65**

 **MP: 10/10**

 **ATK: 25**

 **AGI: 9**

 **CON: 9**

 **INT: 11**

 **WIS: 8**

 **LUK: 1**

 **Points: 0**

During his way here, he made sure to invest his points into his Attack stat. Increasing it from 19 to 25. Though, the only issue with increasing his Attack was that he really didn't _feel_ getting any stronger at all. And that worried him deep down. He nearly died after that encounter with that Beowulf. And that was just _one_ of those things. On Easy difficulty, mind you. That's just stupid! What kind of RPG makes the first battle nearly unwinnable?!

He scoffed at the notion. But that was why he was here – to get stronger and become better prepared if he ever bumped into another floating orb of death. And what better way for a glass cannon to get stronger than to increase his damage stat?

It was around 4 o'clock, meaning that Jaune had three hours before he had to head back to the apartment and prepare dinner. One hour would be spent training, while the remaining time would be him taking a dreaded air-ship to Vale and go grocery shopping.

' _If I recall, to raise my ATK up, all I have to do is repeatedly hit something_ ' he thought, approaching a nearby massive stone planted in the sand. Planting his feet firmly into the floor, he raised his bat into the air. The bones in his arms subtly vibrated when the metal struck the rock.

He lowered the bat and inspected the damage. He frowned slightly when he noticed that the stone didn't even have a scratch on it. "25 Attack and I still can't even do much. Well, I'm not even sure how damage calculations work, but if the bat does 15 damage and I have 25 ATK, then I guess I'm dealing 40 damage per swing."

He struck the stone five more times.

' _6 hits.'_

 **Repeatedly attacking with your weapon has increased your ATK by 1!**

He swung five more times but no message appeared. He gave the rock seven more hits with his bat.

' _12 hits.'_

 **Repeatedly attacking with your weapon has increased your ATK by 1!**

He gave his forehead a quick wipe with his free arm, his sleeve becoming damp with sweat.

Glass cannons were individuals who focused solely on pure power. That much was common knowledge in the gaming community. But what separated the common scrub and pro was how one maximized their effectiveness and took into account the "best" strategy in achieving such a feat. In his case, simply dumping his skill points into ATK wasn't enough. Jaune needed to delve into this Game's mechanics and try to find the algorithm that determined how ATK could be raised. If he could figure that out, then creating an exploit to the system would be as easy as one hitting mobs on a video game.

' _If I hit this rock 18 times, would my Attack increase?'_ he was beginning to see a pattern. Oddly enough, when he reached hit #17 a message box appeared.

 **Repeatedly attacking with your weapon has increased your ATK by 1!**

' _No, that can't be it. Maybe I lost count – yeah, that's probably it.'_ He mentally reassured. Alright, 24 attacks and he'll have 29 ATK.

Unfortunately, poor Jaune had to strike a total of 31 times before his tireless efforts were rewarded.

 **Repeatedly attacking with your weapon has increased your ATK by 1!**

After that, Jaune collapsed in exhaustion. His chest raised and collapsed in quick succession. The echoes of his racing heartbeat drummed in his ears while at the same time he could pick the distorted rhythm of his panting. And with each short breath he took in, his eye would wince slightly from the panging in his chest. His arms felt like wet noodles. Yes, like wet noodles with a strong sense of soreness accompanying them. There was a faint taste of salt at the tip of his tongue; Jaune's face was definitely drenched in sweat.

' _I don't understand. I thought I had a pattern going on here. So why did I have to attack more than I planned? And assuming that I did count correctly and in fact did hit the rock 17 times...is the Game self-aware? Is it trying to indirectly tell me that it doesn't want to be exploited? Or is it just random? Like did it involve some randomly generated variable number that determines how many hits I need to increase my stat? You know what? Fine, I'll play by the rules you stupid ga-'_

His train of thought was cut off when two new messages popped up in front of him.

 **Trying to understand how stats worked has increased your INT by 1!**

 **Realizing that exploiting is wrong has increased your WIS by 1! Gosh, you must really be a piece of trash on your other video games, aren't you?**

"I can say the same thing for your coding..." he grumbled as his eye twitched in annoyance.

Jaune closed his eyes and counted the passing seconds until his breathing was normal again. Getting up wasn't as bad as he thought. Granted, it still felt like someone had glued cinder blocks to his back but it was definitely better than when he got up in the alleyway after fighting the Beowulf.

The bat itself looked a lot better than expected. Multiple scratches were present, but no signs of dents. "Observe."

 **Metal Baseball Bat**

 **Grimm Kills: 1**

 _ **A tool that has only one purpose: Hitting stuff. If you've been using it as a shovel, then you should go see a therapist or something.**_

 **Durability: Good**

 **Damage: 10**

Perhaps using the Repair option gave the weapon a nice protective coating or something. If so, Jaune wouldn't mind having that around his body for protection. You know, kind of like an aura that acted as your shield.

The alarm from his scroll rang, indicating that his one hour was up.

He put the bat back into the inventory. His gaze moved to two specific item boxes: a black hoodie and a pair of jeans. He had made a quick trip to his closet before he arrived at this place.

While he didn't care if he went to Vale in a T-shirt and shorts, both of which were stained with sweat and sand, Jaune wanted to experience what it would be like to "equip" clothing rather than actually spend some time and manually put them on.

He selected the black hoodie first:

 **[Observe]**

 **[Equip]**

 **[Sell]**

When he selected **[Equip],** the item box containing the hoodie flashed for a brief second, and the image of the hoodie was replaced with his T-shirt. He quickly looked down and noticed that his clothing changed. He equipped the jeans and the same effect occurred. There was no white flash, no fancy glow emitting from his clothes, it was just _instantaneous_.

"Off I go."

As Jaune began to make his way to the airship station, his mind was already planning ahead. Yes, he was going to need to spend a little extra on ingredients if it meant getting on Weiss' good side again.

* * *

The worst thing that Jaune hated whenever he had to go buy groceries was that they were a pain to carry from the city, in the air-ship, and to his apartment. During his last trip, he managed to carry six bags all by himself! And given the current situation about his noodle arms, the fact that he had a subspace devoted just to him was an absolute godsend.

Though he had to admit, walking into the washroom, a place with no cameras, while holding two bags full of food was a bit awkward and well...weird.

The city of Vale was as busy as always. With three-story shops and businesses, all similar yet unique in design, all lined up on each side of the streets filled with its citizens. His footsteps would become mute from the surrounding conversations of those around him. Horns from passing vehicles would be heard in the distance, no doubt from the workforce who just finished their occupations for the day. The sun was beginning to set, which gave an orange tint in the colours around him.

Stopping at a busy intersection, Jaune pulled out his scroll to check the time.

 **6: 26**

He was about to put it back into his pocket when a white light blinded him. His heart stopped when all he could hear was ringing through his eardrums. _'No, no, no, no! Out of any possible time, it had to be now?!'_ He didn't understand. There weren't any floating orbs around him, and even if there was, Jaune wasn't going to pick a fight in his current condition!

The blinding white began to fade and Jaune's vision began to function properly again. He whirled his head around, looking for any sign of monstrous shadow beasts. His breathing stopped for a moment at what he was seeing. Or rather, what he wasn't seeing.

People. Humans, faunus, literally everyone around him just _vanished_. It just wasn't those around him, people inside their cars had disappeared too. He turned his head to the left and looked through the display window of a clothing store. Nobody was in there either. Everything had become eerily quiet – not a single voice could be heard.

' _I-I'll call for help. Y-Yeah, that's what I'll do...'_ Jaune quickly brought out his scroll. His eyes widened when he noticed that his scroll suddenly wasn't picking up any reception. "Dammit!" he cursed in a whisper.

A loud roar was heard in the distance.

In response, he quickly pulled out the baseball bat out of his inventory. "Calm down, calm down dammit!" he hissed. He was well aware that the warm feeling was doing its best to put him at ease. But with the way his hands were shaking, Jaune wasn't sure if it was fear or that his arms were still sore from the training earlier.

Running wasn't as option. That damn barrier made sure that he was locked in here with whatever was sent to kill him. Maybe if he played dead-

A thunderous boom was heard, which was then followed by a series of roars. It was a lot closer than the previous howl. "If video games taught me anything, it's that experience is earned in the general direction of where the enemies are..." he declared with a grim expression.

The grip on his weapon grew tighter the closer he got to the screaming and booming. Then, when he turned the corner of a building, he saw it. Standing on its two legs on the sidewalk was something much worse than a Beowulf. It was at least two Cardins tall. With white bone-like spikes extending out of its back and arms, followed by a skull mask with red markings, Jaune could definitely add this to his personal nightmare fuel.

 **Ursa**

 **Lv 10**

If a level 5 Beowulf could nearly kill him, what could a level 10 bear-like demon do to him? And you know what really made him consider his existence in this world? It was the fact that there wasn't one, or two, but a whole PACK of them lingering that street!

"What the fu- "

The loud boom was heard again and before Jaune knew it, the Ursa that he first saw had its head blown off. Its body collapsed with a thud, and Jaune felt the vibrations from here. He soon noticed the behavior of the other Ursa ahead of him. The beasts were completely ignoring him. Instead, the Ursa pack was rushing towards the street, just ahead of where the previous Ursa died.

Cautiously, Jaune crouch-ran in their direction, making sure to use the parked cars as cover. He couldn't quite grasp the feeling he had in his gut. Fear, curiosity, stupidity – maybe a little bit of each.

With each advancing step, the cacophony of noises became more apparent and frequent.

He peered over the hood of a car and his jaw collapsed at the sight before him. Standing in the middle of the road was a girl surrounded by these monsters. In Jaune's opinion, she looked like a badass. It wasn't the fact she was young, probably around his age. Nor was it the fact that she dressed so casually in the face of impending death. An example would be people dressing in formal wear for formal meetings. Wearing nothing more than a sleeveless lime hoodie and white skinny jeans really screamed _appropriate_ for these kinds of things. (Though, Jaune couldn't exactly talk either). And it definitely wasn't those jade revolvers she had in her petite hands.

No, what made her such a badass was that look she had in those crimson eyes. Truthfully, Jaune wasn't the best at reading expressions, but the meaning was clear here. There was no fear, no excitement, and no self-doubt. It was just pure boredom. It gave off that monotone message of _"Hey, seems like I've been surrounded by monsters for the umpteenth time again. Looks like I have to waste my time and kill them. Again."_

Well...THAT and that her level was the highest he's ever seen so far.

 **'** _ **Grand Pickpocket'**_

 **Emerald Sustrai**

 **Lv 32**

The Ursa in front of her let out a war cry filled with blood lust. Said Ursa was shot in the head a second after. As if that was the signal, all the Ursa charged at her. Emerald simply let out a quick yawn, using the back of her hand to cover her mouth. An Ursa pounced at her from the left, but a side glance was all she needed before she raised her gun to shoot it in the head. She then fired two rounds in the same direction to pick off two more Ursa. At the same moment, she lifted her other revolver and killed another one perpendicular from her.

She lazily sidestepped a decapitating swipe from the side and retaliated with a head-shot. And then she ducked a swing from another and did the same thing. Jaune's eyes held amazement and wonder.

Every shot was perfectly timed and executed, with each bullet always finding its mark on the head. Her arms seemed to have a mind of their own. One moment she's firing with her right revolver in one direction, then all of a sudden her left arm would twist her body in another direction, and she would proceed to shoot with her left revolver.

It all happened so fast. One moment she was surrounded by massive beasts, then he blinks just once, and all there's left is her standing among a graveyard of corpses and black smoke. She twirled her firearms around her index fingers before returning them to the holsters behind her back.

Jaune really didn't know what to do at this point. Should he just run away or go up and congratulate her for her performance? Wait, should he even trust her? For all he knew, Emerald might put a bullet in him as well. But she killed those Ursa, so that meant they were on the same side, right?

Wait a second. If she killed all of them, then why hasn't the message " **All enemies eliminated! Gateway cleared!"** shown up yet? Unless...

"Behind you!" he cried out. Just beneath her feet, black steam began to secrete out of the hard concrete. The steam grew darker and began to take form. The process was just like his encounter with the Beowulf, except the materialization process was much, much faster. Now, standing behind the green-haired girl was a massive Ursa. The difference between this one and the others was that it had bone-like armor covering its body with larger spikes from its back. It let out a deafening roar.

 **Ursa Major**

 **Lv 15**

Emerald's eyes, filled with a mild surprise, immediately darted towards him. They held eye contact for only a second, and then she gave him a smirk from the corner of her lips. She pulled a revolver out and with a slight flick of her wrist, it mechanism-shifted into a sickle. In an instantaneous motion, she spun around, cleaving the Ursa Major in two. Jaune was left flabbergasted at the spectacle.

She spun the sickle, which shifted it back into a firearm, and put it back into her holster. "Well come on, don't be shy. I promise I won't shoot you." She said directly to him. Jaune pointed a finger at himself, indirectly asking if she was referring to him. "Yes, you, guy with blond hair, I don't see anyone else around here that fits that description." She gave him a warm smile.

He awkwardly made his way towards her. When they stood face to face, she inspected him from head to toe. "Wait, don't tell me you were going to fight with _that?_ " she pointed at the baseball bat.

"Well...uh..." He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "You see I- "

Jaune couldn't say his next words when he felt the cold sensation of metal under his chin. The sound of his bat hitting the floor was the only thing heard before silence enveloped them. It happened in an instant; he couldn't react – no SEE the revolver being pulled from her holster and her advancing toward him. His blood ran cold as his brain processed the information.

"You must be really good at stealth if I couldn't detect you." She spoke, all friendliness gone in her tone, "makes me wonder how you planned on assassinating me with that."

"W-Wha- I thought you said you wouldn't shoot!" the barrel of the gun was pushed further in.

"Interrupting a girl while she's talking is very rude. Besides, I promised I wouldn't shoot you over _there_. I never said anything about threatening you over _here_." Well, he had to admit, she did have a point there. "So, I've got a question for you..." he noticed out of the corner of his eye that she was holding an object in her other hand. His heart skipped a beat when he realized that it was his wallet.

' _I can see why you have the title of "Grand Pickpocket"'_ he mentally noted.

She opened it up and looked at his student card. "Jaune Arc...it's a really simple question. There are no wrong answers, but there are a lot of answers that I don't like. Don't worry, I'll probably just knock you out and steal your lien if you do give me some crappy answer. Think of it like me paying you back for what you did earlier. But if you lie – and believe me, I know if you're lying – well..." the sound of her gun clicking rang through his ears like fingernails on a chalkboard. He gulped in response.

"I'll only say this once: which guild are you from?"

"...uh...What?"

"Do you think it's the best idea to play dumb right now?"

"I-I'm serious, I have no idea what a guild is or what you're talking about." That was the truth. Jaune really had no idea what was going on right now. "One minute I'm waiting at a busy intersection then all of a sudden I end up here with you."

"So you're a freelancer with no guild? That's pretty rare these days. Who set up the kill contract and how much are they paying you? I swear to god if it's Roman-"

"I don't even know what that is either! And I don't even want to kill you! Actually, let me rephrase that – I _can't_ even kill you!" A level 3 with a baseball bat against a level 32 with two guns? There was no way in hell he could win that match up.

She locked eyes with him for what seemed like forever. She chuckled quietly and pulled the revolver away from his neck. "I don't believe it, you're actually telling the truth." She looked at him in disbelief. "I sort of feel bad for holding a gun to your throat now."

"Sort of?" he raised a brow at her while massaging the area under his chin.

She raised her hands in defense, "You have to agree with me here, the life of a hunter doesn't exactly have "honesty" in the job description."

"Hunter?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Stick out your hand for me Jaune, either one works."

"Uh, sure?" he complied. Emerald transformed her gun into a sickle and made a quick swing at his finger. "Woah, woah, woah, what was that for?!" he demanded as blood trickled out of the finger.

"Calm down, the cut is as deep as a paper cut. You're not going to die." She rolled her eyes. "No wonder I couldn't detect you, your aura isn't even activated yet! Hah, and here I thought you were some stealthy ninja sent to kill me." she giggled.

"Aura? Can we start from the beginning? You know –" he waved his arms around – "what exactly is all this?"

"How about I ask you a question instead – hey don't back away from me! I swear on my thief's honor that I won't threaten you again, promise!" Jaune's shoulders relaxed ever so slightly. "When was the first time you stepped into the Void – this place we're standing in right now?"

"Since yesterday?" Unpleasant memories of a black wolf filled his thoughts.

Emerald looked at him with a blank expression. She then broke into a laughing fit a moment later. "Oh my god, that's hilarious! T-This has to be some kind of joke right? L-Like I've heard of late-bloomers, but for someone your age to awaken your semblance this late? _Pft- hahahaha_!"

"What's so funny?"

"S-Sorry, sorry, it's just that most people who awaken their semblances this late usually don't make it past day 1." She answered, wiping a tear from her eye. "The thought of you beating Grimm with that bat seemed really amusing."

"Just so you know, I almost died." He deadpanned.

"Meh, that's pretty common for anyone just starting out." She shrugged nonchalantly, not showing any concern what so ever.

"B-But what about everything else? What about all that stuff you were talking about before?"

"Ah right, the "System". Well, I guess I have to make it up to you somehow...well, that, and I get to procrastinate from my guild responsibilities." Emerald said, firing a round down the street. A soft thud was heard in the far distance. "First rule in the Void, unless you kill every single thing that wants to kill you, you're never getting out of here. And believe me; it's extremely annoying to find that one straggler that doesn't follow the pack."

He looked up at the sky and noticed the same thing that happened last time: the colours flickered from blue to red before restoring to its proper state.

 **All enemies eliminated! Gateway cleared!**

He felt Emerald hold onto his arm. "C'mon we don't want to be standing in the middle of the road when we get back to our dimension." They moved to the sidewalk and Emerald positioned them to lean against a wall. "You also must be confused on how you suddenly ended up in a ghost town. Well, look forward and you'll see where they all went."

All of a sudden, silhouettes of people began to fade in around him. They were like ghosts that were frozen in time. They began to become more solid, clearer, until eventually the duo were presented with a city full of life-sized statues. And then, as if someone clicked on the universal 'Play' function of a remote, time began to move forward again. The city sounds that he became so used to returned, and Vale's citizens all proceeded to continue on with their daily lives as if nothing ever happened.

And the strangest part? Not a single person gave them a glance, which was strange since two teenagers appearing out of thin air would have given Jaune a heart attack.

"Judging from your face, you must really be freaked out right now. Hey, why don't you check the time?' Emerald grinned. His face must have gotten better for Emerald's amusement since she let out a snicker when he looked at his scroll.

 **6: 26**

"Now I really want to know what the hell's going on." He pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a long exhale.

Emerald brought a relaxed arm over the blond's shoulder. "Well don't worry about it! By the end of today, I guarantee that you'll get the basics down! Now cmon, there's this new noodle shop that opened up last week and I'm starving! I'll tell you everything you'll need to know, and hey, I'll even pay for dinner too!" She smiled at him while waving a lien card in front of his face.

Blink. Blink.

"Why do I have the feeling that the lien you're holding is from my wallet?" he sighed.

Emerald merely winked at Jaune's observation, her smile growing even wider. "Emerald Sustrai, grand pickpocket, at your service."

* * *

 **Omake**

Jaune let out a moan of despair as he let his head fall onto the surface of the cafeteria lunch table. Ever since that _incident_ in the morning, the entire day so far at school had been awkward as hell. Weiss wouldn't talk to him, let alone look at him. An insult would have been acceptable as well! But nope, apparently ignoring his existence was a far greater punishment for accidental stripping.

The lunch period was no different.

Weiss had decided to sit somewhere else from their usual spot. She really wanted to avoid Jaune at all cost. Of course, eating alone was a horrible experience so Ruby decided to sit with her and attempt to mend the Arc-Schnee relationship.

"Jeez Jaune, what did you do this time?" Yang asked as she took a bite from her apple.

"Why do you assume it's my fault that Weiss is ignoring me?" he raised his head and looked at her.

"Well is it?"

"...Kinda."

"Have you apologized to her yet?"

Jaune groaned in response. "Yang, a simple 'I'm sorry' won't cut it. The memory will haunt her forever." There really was no way he could fix this, can he? They would be stuck in awkward silence for the entire year until they graduated, and things would only snowball out of control from there.

"What? Did she see you with only your underwear on or something?" she joked, wiggling her eyebrows for the extra effect.

Jaune just stared at her in a startled silence. "...uh."

Her lilac eyes widened as she brought a hand to her mouth. Yang was getting a kick out of this, wasn't she? Jaune could tell with that suppressed laughter and her fist banging on the table. "Hah. Hah. Yes, for once one of your jokes turned out to be true. Hah. Hah." Jaune slowly applauded.

"It's just...wow, Jaune. Who knew you'd take it to the next step after you stood up against Cardin." She jeered. This time, Jaune fell back into his depressed state and put his head back on the table.

"If you're done laughing at me, can I go talk to Mature-Yang for a moment? I really need her advice." He muffled. He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry Jaune, momma Yang's got you in good hands. And I'm serious too. We may not look like it, but Ruby and I can have some nasty fights from time to time. Fixing the silent treatment is a walk in the park for me at this point!" She grinned.

"Y-You can help me?" He looked up with hope in his eyes.

She turned her head left. Then she turned her head right. Yang then leaned forward and gestured Jaune to do the same. In a gentle whisper, she spoke, "This is a Xiao-Long trademark technique. I don't usually tell non-family members this, but I trust you as a friend. So do not tell anyone else, alright?"

Jaune nodded furiously in acceptance.

"Alright, I'll only say this once so you better remember this word for word."

Jaune nodded furiously in acceptance.

"First, you have to wait when Weiss is showering. Don't question me, it's a girl thing."

"...Wait until Weiss is using the showers, got it."

"Then, prepare your long speech on how sorry you feel and how you want things to go back to normal."

"...Say I'm sorry, got it."

"Once you have your speech planned out – this is the most crucial part by the way – you wait until the sound of the water stops running."

"...Wait until Weiss uses all the hot water, got it."

"Then...you kick down the door and pour your heart into that speech!" Yang slammed her hands on the table in triumph.

"...Open the door and say..." Jaune finally processed what the blonde just said. He stared at her in the face and realized that she was dead serious. In his kindest voice, he mustered "...Yang, I can't do that. Weiss will hate me more if I do that."

"Why not? It works all the time – oh." She realized it too. "...Right, I forgot you're a guy. My bad."

"So how about plan B?" She suggested.

"I'm scared to ask, but what's plan B?"

"How would you feel about spending the remaining school year in a romantic-comedy lifestyle with Weiss as your love interest?" She said, dead serious like before.

Jaune looked at Yang and then looked at Weiss and Ruby sitting at another table. A long sigh escaped his lips as his hand covered his face. "You know what? I think I'll just cook something extra special for my apology."

* * *

 **Not sure if anyone's reading this at this point, but if you are, then do you have a creative name for Emerald's weapons? I tried to use the wiki, but all I got was "?".**


	7. Congratulations! You're a Huntsman Now!

**Shout out to THEREADINGADDICT123 for their suggestion on the name for Emerald's weapons!**

 **But don't despair my fellow readers! As the story progresses, I will require your imagination and creativity to name other weapons, guilds, and Jaune's EXP fodders – I uh mean** _ **Temporary OCs because calling all foot soldiers "WHITE FANG GRUNT" would be lazy and cruel!**_

* * *

"…After investigations, Atlas' military has confirmed that the terrorist group known as the White Fang was responsible for last week's train heist. No casualties were reported during the attack but officials report that the Schnee dust shipment has been stolen…"

Jaune stopped listening to the nearby radio and focused his attention on the girl who was sitting in from of him.

Or rather – refocused his attention.

It was somewhat hard to pay attention when said girl had been spending the past half hour on her meal. Which, by the way, was paid for by the lien she stole from him. He really should put his money in his inventory from now on.

The noodle restaurant she brought him to was quite spacious considering the fact that it had just opened up. The air was slightly humid with a fishy aroma that clung to it. The circular tables were separated by a big distance from each other, probably for the convenience of private conversations between customers. Although, there wasn't a worry that someone might listen in since the entire restaurant was muted with the chatter around them.

There was just one tiny issue Jaune had. The place was crowded with people – customer and workers alike. Now the problem wasn't the crowd that he was currently a part of. No, the problem was why they weren't kicked out of this place for bringing in weapons! Seriously, why wasn't anyone concerned about this? Jaune was paranoid enough to put his bat under his chair. But Emerald, in all her thief's glory, decided to place her two revolvers in the middle of their table! The worst part was that Jaune couldn't understand why nobody here _wasn't_ paying attention to them!

"Observe." He muttered under his breath.

 **Lapur Berdea (Revolver Form)**

 **Grimm Kills: 1562**

 _ **What's better than a deadly, efficient weapon? Two of them. Dust caliber revolvers effective up to high-mid range. Can shift into sickles capable of cleaving steel with a single swing.**_

 **Durability: Excellent**

 **Damage: 320**

' _My god that damage…'_

"Something bothering you? You've had that annoyed look ever since we've been here." Emerald asked, slurping a spoonful of soup into her mouth.

"Let's start at the part where you promised me that you'd tell me everything you know." He hissed under his breath.

"Wow, impatient much?" she playfully scoffed. "Didn't you ever hear that old saying, _'Patience is as valuable as a pickpocket's…."_

He gestured his hand for her to continue. "A thief's what?"

"I don't know, it's surprisingly hard to relate martial arts philosophy to pickpocketing." She shrugged.

"How is that an old saying then?" He sighed.

"It's the principle that counts, ok?" she pouted in return.

' _Resist the urge to slam your head on the table Jaune, she's obviously playing you.'_ He repeated in his thoughts. Emerald was someone you could never underestimate. One minute she'll be ordinary and innocent, then she'll suddenly turn into a killer with a gun held against your throat.

The blond cupped a hand over his mouth as he released a sigh, "Just…Just tell me already Emerald."

"Aw, you're no fun." She grinned. "Fine, if you're that eager to lose your innocence then I'll talk."

They stared into each other's eyes in a lapsed silence.

He gestured with his hand for her to continue. "Are we playing this routine again?"

"You're really impatient, you know that? Here I am trying to create some dramatic build up and then you just decide to ruin everything." Emerald puffed her cheeks. "Welcome to the world of hunters ~ _yaaaaaay~_ " She ended that last bit off in a low un-motivated tone and expression. "What? Were you expecting confetti and fireworks? Sorry, maybe next time you'll learn to read into the moment and shut up."

"World of hunters?"

She nodded. "That's right, starting today you're a huntsman – the unsung hero who will spend the rest of their life fighting the evil monsters known as Grimm. Not anyone gets to be a hunter though; you can train all your life but if you don't awaken your semblance – sorry, you're not qualified for the job. Hell, you won't even be able to see a gateway without a semblance."

"Semblance? What's up with that? I remember you laughing at me for ' _awakening my semblance this late'_ " he asked.

Emerald brought a hand under her chin for a moment, thinking of the next words for the blond. She placed her hand on the table before continuing. "It's what makes hunters, you and I included, ' _awake'_. It allows us to see what the majority of people can't. An example would be gateways – the floating colorful orbs that you'll be seeing until you're dead in your grave. Now -"

"Can you explain more about these gateways?" Jaune had thought that he would get his answers but now he even had more questions popping up in his mind.

She idly tapped over the handle of her gun. "What did I say about interrupting a girl while she's talking?" Jaune zipped his lips in a quick motion. "Where was I again – ah right, the other thing about semblances. Awakening your semblance also means that your soul is able to manifest itself outward from your body. This creates a unique crack in reality which allows you to manipulate it based on your soul. Think of it like a special super power based on a certain characteristic about yourself that only you have."

His shoulders relaxed a bit. Ah, so that explains why his perception of everything around him suddenly turned into a video game.

"Like I said earlier: not anyone can be a hunter. The moment you're born into this world, the supernatural determines if your semblance is awakened or not. That doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be a super-powered baby either. The latest age one awakens their semblance is 10. It's a rare scenario, but you can awaken at a later age but your chances of dying by Grimm sky-rocket."

"But why is that? I mean, I'm still alive and breathing." He mentioned.

"That's because you only awakened your semblance yesterday, you idiot." She rolled her eyes. "The mind of children are _flexible_. They can _adapt_ and _comprehend_ much more easily compared to the adult mind. Honestly, I'm surprised your mind didn't lock up at the sight of your first grimm. That's usually what happens to people your age or higher. So forgive me for laughing earlier, but you're actually the first person I've met to awaken this late and survive." She took a sip from her cup.

If Jaune was completely honest, he was bloody terrified when he first encountered that Beowulf. If it wasn't for that warm feeling he'd been experiencing ever since he awakened his semblance Jaune would have been dead for sure.

"Ok, so I understand how I got these powers, but why exactly do we have to risk our lives killing Grimm? They're not exactly endangering the majority of Remnant." It made sense the more he thought about it. You needed to be _awake_ in order to see gateways. If that's the case, then why bother engaging in combat?

She scoffed at Jaune's logic. "What? Did you actually think you can live an ordinary life and avoid gateways and Grimm? That's what every hunter thinks when they're just starting out. Jaune, let me be blunt here" – Emerald suddenly stared at him with the same look she had when she held her gun to his neck – "In this world, it's kill or be killed."

All he could do was gulp as he continued to listen to her.

"The moment your semblance is awakened; your soul becomes a lighthouse to the gateways. In other words, you're a walking magnet. So you can run all you want, but sooner or later you're going to get cornered by one of those things. Plus, even if you _did_ manage to avoid the gateways, there's no way in hell you're going to avoid getting caught in a gateway's Void radius if another hunter decides to engage it. It's just like you said earlier, one minute you're waiting by an intersection then all of a sudden you end up in the Void since a hunter – which was me by the way – opened up a gateway.

"So how exactly big is the radius?" he inquired.

She shrugged. "Don't know. Sometimes it can be as small as a building or it can be as big as the entire city. It all depends on how strong the Grimm in that gateway are."

"You've been talking about this 'Void' place for awhile now. So far all I know about it is it's where the grimm are and that we have to kill all of them in order to escape it. Not only that but when we did leave the Void, not a single minute passed and no one seemed to care that we appeared out of thin air." Jaune pointed out.

Emerald pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh. "Alright, this part is always the hardest to explain. Give me a second, I'm going to try and regurgitate what my mentor told me when I asked about the Void."

And so they sat there in silence. Emerald had the appearance of some wise person lost in thought with the way her arms were crossed and her eyes were scrunched up tightly. Jaune was drumming his fingers on the table to pass the time.

"Ok, I think I got it." She said. "But keep in mind – if you want to understand what I'm about to say, you _must not think about it_. Just accept it for what it is, otherwise, you're going to suffer a massive headache."

Jaune nodded his head in agreement.

"Good." She said. "Now the Void is a complicated place but at the same time, it's the simplest. It's real but at the same time, it's not real. Everything in the Void exists but at the same time, it doesn't exist. Time there is infinite but at the same time, it's zero. It's a par-"

"Huh…" Jaune muttered with a dumbfounded look on his face. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes seemed to forget what they were seeing in front of him. He was about to enter an inner dialogue with himself until he felt a sharp pain erupt from his cheek.

"Oum, you have the same look I had when she told me for the first time." She huffed, smacking him on the cheek again to get his attention. "Just _*SMACK*_ Accept _*SMACK*_ IT _*SMACK*_. It'll be easier for both of us this way."

"It's kinda hard to accept something when you keep contradicting yourself!" he retorted while rubbing his hand on his cheek.

"Idiot, that's what I'm trying to tell you. The Void is just one big paradox – something that's not even possible becoming possible! That's the reason why not even a single second passes when a hunter returns from the Void. The moment we enter the Void, our existence becomes _null_. At that very moment, we don't exist in our reality anymore. That's why nobody gives a shit if we suddenly appear in front of their faces. The moment we leave the Void, our existence becomes _whole_ again. Reality becomes warped and the perception of any civilian around us is altered in order to fill the missing gap of our existence." She inhaled a large amount of air when she finished her explanation.

"So what you're saying is that when we return to our reality, it would be as if we were standing there the whole time?" he came to the realization.

"Huh, would you look at that." She sighed in relief. "Second day on the job and you're already getting a hang of the ropes. Well if you understand that much then I guess I'll be returning to my guild then-"

"W-Wait!" he brought a hand up.

"What? I'm sure I've covered everything you need to know about this new world." She raised an eyebrow.

"What about guilds? O-Or whatever you were talking about earlier. I think you called it the System?" Now Jaune wasn't an idiot. After playing more than enough video games he knew what the concept of what a guild was. But he wasn't sure if the information he had could actually be applied to this new "world".

"Oh yeah, I thought I was forgetting something." She realized. "Well, think of the System as a set of laws that Hunters have to follow if we want to have an easier time surviving." Emerald paused for a moment. "Actually, let me rephrase that. Laws would imply strict order; the System is more like… a set of optional guidelines."

"Should I be concerned about the way you said the last part?" Jaune raised an eyebrow. The girl who sat in front of him was a thief – a dangerous one at that – which meant that laws basically went out of the window for her. So is she saying that _he_ had to follow these laws or are they optional?

"I mean, you don't _have_ to follow them." She rolled her eyes. "You could just spend the rest of your life mindlessly killing Grimm if that's what you want. But that would suggest charity work, as in _free beneficial labor_ in the eyes of the Hunter world." Emerald appeared to be fake gagging at the last part. He wasn't surprised by her demeanor, though; it was expected by the implications of her title.

"But what's wrong with that exactly?"

"What's _wrong_ is that you don't get any benefit in it what so ever." She continued. "You asked what guilds were in this world, right? From a pickpocket's perspective, guilds are like street gangs."

"Street…gangs?" he stared at her with a confused look.

"Yup." She grinned at his reaction. "Guilds are just a bunch of other Hunters that band together under the loyalty of the gang leader – I mean Guild master – and they take jobs from clients in order to earn cash and other things of value. The more jobs that a guild completes, the more its reputation grows which creates even more jobs for the guild to take. Not only that but by being in a guild you get protection."

"Protection?" He said the word aloud, allowing it to sink in.

Emerald's eyes shifted into a dangerous gaze once again. "Like I said already, it's kill or be killed. I can tell from that innocent look in your eyes that you doubt me. I'm just a girl who's good at stealing and kills monsters in her spare time. That doesn't make me sound any trustworthy, am I right? But believe me, that's the philosophy of the world we live in. It's cruel and harsh, but that's the truth. If you're part of a guild, then at least you know that someone's going to protect your pockets if you ever decide to turn a blind eye."

"So what you're saying is … financial security?" he concluded from her speech.

"Exactly – wait wha – no!" she slammed a fist on the table. "That's not what I meant at all! That was a figure of speech, you idiot. I meant that the guild's got your back if you're ever in trouble."

Jaune scratched the back of his head in mild embarrassment.

"That's pretty much what the System is in a nutshell." She got up from her seat and brought her revolvers back into their holsters. "And before you ask – yes, there's a lot more information that I'm not telling you about the world of Hunters. I told you what you needed to know. The rest is just filler crap that can be obtained on your own or from your guild mates if you decide to join a guild."

…Join a guild. Now that he thought about it, the description that Emerald told him practically matched the guild systems he'd been part of in his video games. Guilds provided a source of income and protection. That was the basic concept he got from her. If this was like his video games, logically, he should join the strongest guild for the highest benefits.

But a problem arose from his logic. Jaune had absolutely no idea on how to find a guild. How the heck was he supposed to join a guild when he didn't even know where to start? _'I mean I could try using Google but that sounds like a really stupid idea.'_ He mentally grimaced at his pathetically few options.

He glanced towards the Grand Pickpocket.

' _ **Grand Pickpocket'**_

 **Emerald Sustrai**

 **Lv 32**

She was powerful and over leveled him by a large amount. Heck, if she was level 32 then what level would her guild master be – an idea suddenly hit him.

' _Would that really work? She's been friendly to me so far but this seems a bit too much to-_

 **Quest Available!**

 **The Classic Part of Any RPG:** _ **Guilds are an important aspect in the world of Hunters. Emerald Sustrai is an example of an individual who belongs to one of the many guilds! Perhaps it would be wise to become her ally? Or would it be better to explore and find another guild? Join a Hunter guild!**_

 **Time Limit: Unlimited**

 **Completion Reward: Guild Title, 125 Exp**

 **Failure: None**

 **[Accept] [Decline]**

He instinctively pressed on **[Accept]**. The Game sure had a way to bribe him with Exp.

She threw lien – most likely his – on the table. "Thanks for the meal but I got to go now. Procrastinated guild responsibilities aren't going to finish themselves you know."

"E-Emerald wait!" he called.

She let out a faint sigh, "What now? I'm sure I covered everything you needed to know. Wait, if this is about your lien then sorry but I stole it fair and square."

"What…" he deadpanned. "Never mind about the lien. Look, you're part of a guild right?"

"Yes?" she answered cautiously, brow slowly rising from the blond's question.

"And your guild is full of strong Hunters like yourself, right?"

"That's…" she paused "... debatable. Jaune I know you're stalling, so I'm going straight to the point – what do you want?"

"I-I'm just saying…" he bit his lip, azure eyes dancing at every corner but the person in front of him. "…um…Can I join your guild?"

"Eh?" she stared directly at him. "You being serious right now?"

"Yes! You're strong, like extremely strong." He forced his eyes on her, determination set within, "And I bet your guild's reputation must be well known if your guildmates are as strong as you are."

"Again, that's debatable." She said with a grimace. "Look, Jaune, you seem like a trustworthy guy. Judging from your facial reactions, I know that you're telling the truth about awakening your semblance yesterday. Which means I don't have to worry about you being a spy if you join my guild."

"Is that a yes then?" The corner of his lips subtly forming a grin.

"But it isn't my choice to make." She sighed. "Only the guild master can accept new members, and sorry to say this but I'm only just a member. Hell, even then my guild master is very picky with who gets to join."

His shoulders suddenly became heavier in slight disappointment. But then again, Jaune Arc, a follower of the glass cannon movement, was hardly one to give up. "E-Even so, I still want to join your guild."

"Wow, aren't you determined?" She noted. "Well if you really insist on joining, I could always try and recommend you."

"Really? You'd do that for me?" his eyes widened.

She smirked. "Not to brag or anything, but I'm actually the first member to join the guild. So I guess you could say me and the guild master have a good relationship. Of course…" she leaned forward, " _…you're going to have to do something to impress me if you want that recommendation."_

He gulped. "What do you have in mind?"

She placed a finger over her lips and stared aimlessly at the ceiling fan. "Don't know, as long as it's interesting to me I don't really care."

His eye twitched momentarily in response. How exactly was a level 3 supposed to impress someone like her? Perhaps using the Observe skill would give him an advantage over this issue.

"So Emerald, you're going to have to observe whatever I'm doing that's interesting right?" The issue of having voice only controllers was that he had to word his sentences very carefully if he did/didn't want to use his abilities.

' **Grand Pickpocket'**

 **Emerald Sustrai**

 **Lv 32**

 **AURA: 150/150**

 **HP: 120/120**

 **MP: 80/100**

" **Pickpocketing isn't a crime; it's an art!"**

" _An experienced huntress with a gift of sleight of hand. Prioritizes lien above many things but always puts her responsibilities towards her…"_

And it cuts off from there. Jaune wasn't expecting much, considering his Observe skill was only level 2. Honestly, how difficult was it to level up this skill?

And what the hell was Aura? He'd have to ask her later if he ever got the chance.

The only useful point he got out of that was she was interested in money, which didn't surprise the blond at all considering the fact that she was a thief. He only had one thing going for him right now. If this doesn't interest her, then Jaune wouldn't know what would.

"What are you talking about? Of course I have to observe you." Her eyes narrowed. "How else am I supposed to tell if it's interesting enough for a recommendation?"

He bit down the inside of his cheek to ease his nerves. The warm feeling had sprung up from within again. Jaune could feel his tense mind relaxing. His thought process was straightening itself, his next words slowly becoming clearer.

He innocently raised his hands up. "Sorry, sorry, just making sure is all. Say, you call yourself the _Grand Pickpocket_ , right?"

' _First, create the foundation.'_

"What about it?" She eyed him suspiciously.

"Well, I was just thinking about how you must be an expert at sleight of hand." He said.

"Oh? Is this your attempt at trying to get a recommendation? Sorry, but flirting with me isn't going to get you into the guild." She playfully jeered at him.

"N-No I'm just saying facts, that's all." he coughed. "Another fact: did you know that pickpocketing is considered stealing in the eyes of the law?"

' _Next, build up from the established foundation.'_

"So I've heard." Her tone was suddenly cold and empty.

"But _in my opinion_ , I think that your profession is misunderstood." This seemed to make her eyes widen in confusion. "Most people would see pickpocketing as a crime, but to me, I think it's a form of art."

' _Next, find an investor who will-_

She pulled a chair and quickly sat down again, "Finally, someone who actually gets it! You know, most people I meet usually see me as some street rat who's desperate for some quick cash. But you're the second person so far who shares my vision!"

' _Okay, was not expecting this at all. I'm going to have to fire the investor now and continue building.'_

"I understand how it feels. To be extremely passionate at something and yet have the majority of the community looking down upon you for following your passion." He looked into the distance, recalling horrible memories.

" _Being a glass cannon is bad_ _Jaune… Glass cannons are too squishy; it'll never work WhiteKnight64… Arc117, you should really invest in some defense stats… WHO THE HELL BUILDS 6 BLOOD THIRSTERS ON SORAKA?!_

"…Those filthy non-believers." He hissed after a brief moment of silence. He was met with a raised brow from Emerald. "Sorry, bad memories surfaced up. Ah, anyways, I take it that you have an interest in money?"

She leaned closer, her focus fully intent on the blond. "Go on, I'm listening."

He let out a quiet chuckle as Jaune skimmed through a mental list of video game quotes he accumulated over the years. "Well, here's another philosophy that this world follows: ' _money is power'_. And I might not look like it, but I have a _passion_ for accumulating power. I guess that passion became my semblance."

"Ok, now you've got me interested." Her voice seemed higher than usual as if there was excitement in her tone.

This part was do-or-die now. If she was interested, Jaune would be in the guild. If not, well… _Google Search_.

' _And finally, add a teaspoon of sugar… I honestly had no idea how I went from house building to baking.'_

"My semblance," he took a deep breath and gave Emerald the best poker face he could muster, "is that for every Grimm I kill, their corpses will drop lien."

He figured this mechanic out when he recalled Emerald's encounter with the Ursa. Not a single reward gem was dropped, thus Jaune concluded that he had to be the one to kill them for drops to occur.

Jaune was aware that Emerald could tell if he was lying. But they say the best lie was half the truth. He could have told her the truth about his semblance, but then her views on the blond would significantly change. Right now, Emerald assumed that Jaune's heart was aimed towards money. If he were to reveal his passion for video games instead then he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to get the message fully across.

"Seriously? You're not pulling my leg, are you?" she demanded.

"You said that you can tell if I'm lying. Does that mean you doubt your ability to read someone who is as weak as I am?" he asked.

She examined his face for a moment before heaving a sigh. "No, you're definitely not lying. It just sounds too good to be true. So how much lien do you get per kill?"

' **Speech' level has gone up by 1!**

He shrugged, ignoring the screen in front of him. "So far I only got 20 off of one Grimm. I'm not entirely sure how it works. I could either get 20 for all my kills or it could increase based off of how strong my opponent is."

"Want to test it out?" she asked with an eager grin.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure I've said this already but just so we're clear, _I almost died_." He deadpanned.

"Pft," she scoffed, "There's a huge difference between _almost_ and _completely_."

"I have no combat experience what so ever." He continued with a dead stare.

"It's fine, I could always cover for you. Hell, I'll even kill all of them except for one if it bothers you that much. It's a pretty good deal." She added an icy feeling in her voice. "A deal that I recommend you take if you want to join the guild."

Wow, she's using that card against him? He figured as much.

He groaned in defeat. "Fine, I'll take you up on your offer."

Her face lit up. "Great! Well c'mon I think I know the perfect gateway around this area for you."

" _~Yaaaaaaay~"_ he cheered sarcastically.

* * *

After aimlessly walking around the streets of Vale, the two ended up in a parking lot. There, floating behind the back of a parked truck was a floating orb emitting a blue hue.

 **Beowulf Gateway**

 **Difficulty: Easy**

"Well, here we are. This Gateway should be weak enough for a newbie like you to handle." Emerald said. "I'll give you the honors."

"Of what?"

"Entering the void of course. I'm standing beside you so I'm definitely going to be tagging along too. Just touch the orb and we'll be on our merry way." She explained.

When he touched the Gateway, Jaune was met with the same disorientating flashbang effect like the previous times. He rubbed his eyes vigorously to recover his senses.

By the time his senses did recover, his eyes were now staring at Emerald who was giving him a confused look. "Huh, I thought you'd be used to that by now." She said, appearing to be unfazed from the effects of entering the Void.

"What? Being flashbanged before having to fight demons?" he glared. He soon noticed black smoke materializing out of the ground in front of them. Just like before, the mist expanded and took form into shadow-like werewolves. There were four of them in total.

 **Beowulf**

 **Lv 7**

Before Jaune could even get into a fighting stance, three sounds of gunfire erupted beside him. He blinked a couple to times as three headless Beowulves collapsed onto the floor as smoke sizzled out of their corpses. He turned his head to the girl beside him and noticed that she let out a yawn while idly spinning her gun with her index finger.

"What? I told you that I'd leave one just for you." She put her gun away. "Well, have fun with the last Beowulf then." She cheerfully winked at the blond before taking a couple steps back away from the last enemy. "Try not to die, ok?"

He had no idea how to react to that. Should he be annoyed about the last bit or encouraged that she cared for his well being?

It was probably the latter. He looked over again and saw her playing a game on her scroll. Scratch that, it's definitely the first.

He tightened the grip on his weapon as azure eyes locked onto bloody red. He was terrified alright. But the thought that he wasn't alone this time or that he already killed one of these things slightly eased his worries. The fight should be fine. Even if the Beowulf was a higher level than the previous one, it still followed the same attack pattern. Jaune's main focus should be to wait for an opening and then aim for a crippling blow.

The Beowulf let out a scream filled with killing intent before it charged at Jaune. Anticipating that the monster was going to pounce on him, he jumped to the left to dodge. He blindly swung at the beast. The Beowulf howled in pain, but the damage wasn't enough to cripple it. Just his luck.

The Beowulf swung its left claw at his head. He quickly brought up his weapon to block the decapitating swing. Though, Jaune immediately regretted his decision as the force upon impact had sent the boy flying a couple feet in the air before crashing onto the asphalt. A couple of scrapes and possibly a bruise but as long as nothing broke he didn't mind. Thankfully, he could still feel his grip on the baseball bat when he landed.

"C'mon get up!" he heard Emerald call out in the distance. Jaune's heart sank in mild despair when he glanced over to see that Emerald wasn't even looking at him, but rather the screen on her scroll. "God damn Meta Knight and his down tilt lock..." she grumbled through gritted teeth while mashing her finger against the screen.

"Glad to know you got my ba– OH SHII-" If he rolled away any second later Jaune would have felt the discomfort of getting a claw impaled into his chest. He stood back up and readied himself. A bead of sweat trickled down his face when he noted the small crater that the Beowulf had created.

It charged at him once more, its neck extended and ready to sink its fangs into him. He put himself into a batter's position. With a mighty battle cry, the blond swung with all his might against the creature's lower jaw once it was close enough. The Grimm crashed against the door of a nearby car, the sound of glass shattering becoming muted under the beast's growls. Pressing the advantage, Jaune advanced forward. He swung again at the fallen Beowulf, sending its body against the damaged car once more.

It was just like before: sending the Beowulf into a state of helplessness while Jaune would continue to swing until the creature died. After five attacks from Jaune's bat, the monster's body became limp and a quiet snarl was released before the blood light in its eyes became dormant.

 **You leveled up!**

 **Would you like to edit your stats now?**

 **[Yes] [Later]**

" _Later…_ " he looked at the dead Beowulf.

He hadn't realized it while he was busy killing the Beowulf but Jaune was exhausted. If the heavy breathing or sweat drenched face wasn't any indication of his fatigue, then it was sudden desire to collapse under the feeling of increased gravity that made him realize that training and fighting on the same day was a horrible idea. Jaune felt a pang of guilt as he inspected the ruined car behind the decaying monster. It looked as if a Schnee transport truck had crashed into the rear.

"Well, would you look at that." Emerald whistled as she came up from behind. "You sure you almost had a near death experience against your first encounter with a Grimm? Aside from your poor stamina, I think that you handled the situation _kind_ _of_ well. No offense, but I expected the situation to burn up in disappointment considering the fact that ' _you have no combat experience'_ what so ever."

Jaune shrugged, too tired to even care if Emerald had faith in him or not. "I guess my first encounter with the Grimm yesterday counts as combat experience. Actually, the first Grimm that I encountered was just like this one. To be honest, I thought that I was going to be in trouble, but I calmed down a bit when I realized their similar attack pattern. After that, it became a game of prediction. Heck, even if their attack patterns were unique, I could have just crippled it so it becomes docile and then proceed to do the same thing just now."

She slack-jawed. "Seriously? You were able to pick up on all that after just _one_ fight against a Beowulf?"

He gave her a smug smile. "I play a lot of video games. Analysing enemy attack patterns became second nature to me after a couple of years."

"You don't say…"

Years of studying enemy mobs from video games had finally paid off. Although Jaune had suspected that a clear and organized mind from the warm feeling was the main factor for his victory. He wasn't as scared when he was fighting this time. More like anxious really. Replaying boss fights became easier once you beat them the first time after all.

The color of the night sky flickered a series of dark and light tones until the disoriented shade ceased to exist.

 **All enemies eliminated! Gateway cleared!**

"…Emerald?" Jaune called out, staring at the car in front of him.

"Yes, Jaune?"

"Why is the destroyed car not destroyed anymore?" he inspected the parked vehicle. It was as if Jaune had never fought a Beowulf at all.

"Void." She answered with closed eyes.

"Void?"

"Void." She sighed.

"So I could set off a bomb in the middle of this city in the Void and nothing will happen once I return to my dimension?"

"…Void." She let out an annoyed sigh from Jaune's questions. "Don't try and change the subject. Don't think for a second that I haven't forgotten the whole reason we're here. So where is it? I don't see any lien from where the Beowulf died." She pulled his wallet out of her hoodie pocket. Jaune crinkled his nose in disbelief at her pickpocketing skills. "And your wallet doesn't feel any heavier."

Azure eyes glanced over and noticed a familiar gem lying on the floor. He turned to the girl. "You don't see that?"

She raised a brow. "See what?"

"Guess I'm the only one who can see it then," he noted, "Well, keep count on how much lien is in my wallet. And don't steal anything." His eye twitched when the girl returned an innocent smile at his request.

He reached out for the reward gem.

 **Reward Gem acquired! +40 lien added!**

"Alright, check my wallet again."

Emerald opened up the contents of his wallet before she suddenly fixed a gaze unto it. "40 extra lien…Monty Oum… you can make a living with this kind of semblance."

He scratched the back of his head, "Really? I always thought tha- Hey what are you doing?!" he demanded as Emerald pulled the 40 lien out of his wallet.

She grinned. "Think of this like ah _compensation_ for all the help I've done for you."

"Bu-bu-"

"C'mon Jaune," she cut him off, walking in another direction, "I have a guild to introduce you to."

* * *

"You've been staring at my guild with that ridiculous look on your face for the past minute now." She pointed out.

To say that Jaune wasn't surprised would be a complete lie. It's just that out of all buildings, it _had_ to be this one? It was a dark building that stood in-between a small dust shop and an apartment-style café. While the other two buildings were quite plain with their chestnut walls and bright logos, Emerald's _guild_ was the complete opposite. Its walls were painted black and above the entrance was a massive electronic display screen that presented the title of this building in large white text.

Grimm Eclipse. A well-known arcade in the city of Vale and a place where Jaune could relax and find some private time for himself. He found it very hard to believe that an arcade where he'd been going to since high school was actually a Hunter's guild in disguise.

"Are you kidding me? This place?" he gestured at the building with exaggerated hand motions. "You're telling me that an arcade is your guild? This isn't one of those things where there's a secret entrance that leads to an underground facility is it?"

"Do you have any idea how much that would cost us?" she scoffed. "Please, there's no need to make the guild hidden. The best place to hide is out in the open. Nobody ever thinks to look there."

"What are you hiding from?"

"If you manage to join the guild, I'll tell you about it."

He nodded in agreement.

"So…Grimm Eclipse…" he left the name out in the open. Jaune hadn't realized it until now. He always thought that the arcade's name was done intentionally for legal reasons or something. But after getting involved in this mess of a new world, it seemed appropriate for a guild to have this kind of name.

"… Isn't the name of our guild, no." She chuckled lightly. "Naming a building, a popular one as well, with our guild's name wouldn't exactly keep us hidden."

"So are we going inside to meet the guild master?" he asked.

"Woah there newbie, you can't just barge in there and expect the master to automatically accept you." She put a hand over his shoulder, preventing him from entering the arcade. "I said that I would introduce you to the guild, not recruit you."

"I thought you were going to recommend me?" he asked.

"I am." She replied. "But I can't be like: _"hey guild master, I'd like to recommend some scrawny blond guy who just awakened his semblance yesterday to join our guild and don't be surprised at me but he's standing behind me as we speak."_ It doesn't work like that, sorry. I'm going in to give my recommendation; explain my case with the master first."

"And what about me?" he frowned.

"I don't know, go home or get lost. I don't care."She tapped her foot with impatience. "Look, the guild master is a quick thinker. So just come here tomorrow after school or something and we'll start from there. Good night, Jaune."

As Emerald casually walked into the building, a sudden realization hit him.

' _She didn't even return my wallet!'_

"Hey! Come back here!"

* * *

The moment school finished Jaune bolted straight to Grimm Eclipse. The airship ride was uneventful considering that the blond had lost his lunch and breakfast during the trip there. But for once, it might be worth the upset stomach.

By the time he reached the arcade building he noticed Emerald waiting in front of the entrance. Her face lit up when she noticed him. "Oh thank god you showed up! I was ordered to stand here the whole day until you arrived."

"Did you wait long?" he joked.

She puffed her cheeks. "Yes, you made me wait for a good 20 minutes! Do you know how many wallets I could've borrowed with that much time?"

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." He said. "So what did your guild master say? Since you were ordered to wait for me, I can guess that I'm in the guild now, right?"

"Sorry, you're not in the guild." She sniggered at the disappointment on his face when he heard her words. "…Not yet anyways."

"Eh?"

"She was interested in you if that's any consolation. I thought that she would outright laugh when I asked her that I wanted a scrawny kid like you to join." She pointed her head towards the door. "Come inside with me. You're going to have a…" she paused and bit her lip, "I guess _job_ _interview_ would be the best way to describe it."

It was just how he remembered it. Music from the stereos above made the cheers of children and teenagers in the room barely audible. You had to be up close to the various game machines if you wanted to hear the 8-bit soundtracks. The arcade interior lacked windows and the multi-colour lights were dimmed, creating a replication of either a horror-film setting or a shut-in's room (not that Jaune had experience of course).

He welcomed the nostalgic odor of pizza stains on carpet when he stepped foot inside. Emerald seemed to have an irritated expression on her face. Guess she wasn't much of an arcade person.

They walked in silence for the trip. Emerald led Jaune through an ' _Employee's only'_ door which led to a flight of stairs and eventually into a narrow hallway.

"You nervous for your job interview?" she chimed, stopping at the door at the end of the hallway. The sign on the door read **MANAGER/ OWNER**. Huh, so the leader of the guild owned the arcade, makes sense now that he thought about it.

"I don't know. Should I be nervous?" he half-joked/ half asked. It shouldn't be that bad. Emerald did say that the guild master found him interesting enough to meet in person. It'll probably be just a couple of questions and he'll be in.

"Potential guildmate first," she opened the door and gestured the blond to come in.

The room looked like a generic office you'd find in a video game. White walls with bookshelves on one end and massive windows accompanied with a potted plant on the other. In the center of the room were a desk and two chairs positioned in front of it. Sitting behind the desk was the person which Jaune could assume to be the guild master.

She was a beauty if Jaune could find a single word to describe her. She wore a black blazer with a white dress shirt underneath. With ashen-black hair tied up in a ponytail and bright amber eyes that radiated an untouchable flame, Jaune had momentarily forgotten how to breathe when her lips arched into a smile.

She was the woman who would be his future guild master. And to be honest, he was seriously fine with that.

' _ **Eclipsed Flame'**_

 **Cinder Fall**

 **Lv 77**

Cinder rested her chin above her hands. "You must be that scrawny boy Emerald was talking about the other day. Jaune Arc was it?" Jaune gave the thief a quick glare which was responded with an innocent stare. "You may address me as Ms. Fall for the time being. Come, have a seat and we'll begin the process to see if you're fit to join."

He silently nodded before making his way towards the chair.

Just as he sat down Jaune heard a faint _click_ of the door locking behind him. "Emerald?"

She gave no response to him. With a blank expression, she made her way over to him. Weird. Emerald usually had something to say whenever the blond opened his mouth. What did he do to get the silent treatment?

"Was locking the door really… neces-" Jaune forgot what he was going to say next when he suddenly found himself face to face with the end of Emerald's Lapur Berdea.

"Guild master's orders." She said with an empty tone. "Turn around and face the guild master."

He complied.

Cinder leaned forward, the smile still plastered on her face. "Now, now, Jaune. There's no need to feel discomfort about the current situation you're in. This is quite the common scenario Hunters face on a daily basis. I can assure you that this process will quick…or possibly painless if you choose to do or say anything _unsatisfactory_."

Jaune took it back. He took it all back. He was definitely NOT OKAY with this. Not at all!

"Now before we begin, tell me – what do you know about guilds so far?" she asked.

"W-Well, they're a source of income and protection for Hunters?" he mumbled. The room was painfully silent and he could feel his heart racing under the pressure he was in.

"Is that all?"

"Y-Yes that's all that Emerald told me." He stuttered.

She hummed. "Indeed, Emerald has explained to you the basics of how this secondary world works. Do you know why Hunters get involved with Gateways? Why we were chosen to slay the monsters known as Grimm?"

"Because…it's kill or be killed?" he recalled his conversation from yesterday.

"That's the main philosophy, yes. But do you know the _reason_? Why only a small population in this entire world have the privilege to fight?" They stared at each other in silence as if she was expecting an answer out of him. "… The reason us Hunters risk our lives against these monsters is because of negativity."

"Hatred, anger, depression, discrimination, the list goes on…" she counted out with her fingers. "When mankind was brought into this world, they were pure and clean of sin. The Grimm are what tainted mankind; creating the darkness in our souls. Gateways have two purposes. The first is that it acts as an entrance to the Void. The second is that it promotes negativity. It's like a parasite. It emits radiation which sinks into the host's soul which then influences negative emotion. The Gateways feed off of this negativity and become stronger as a result. Do you understand?"

"…That's why Hunters fight the Grimm." He was beginning to connect the dots. "Hunters go into the Void to clear gateways, which leads to less negativity."

She gave an approving nod to his conclusion. "Without Hunters to eradicate these gateways, Remnant would have fallen. This brings us to the central philosophy of kill or be killed. Hunters slay Grimm in order to protect Remnant, but Grimm slay Hunters in order to destroy Remnant. It's truly an inescapable cycle. And yet, this is what led to the creation of guilds – Huntsmen and Huntresses banding together against a common enemy."

She got up from her seat, revealing a black knee length skirt. The clicking of heels was the only sound in the room as she made her way towards the window. She stared into the horizon. "But the guild system itself is flawed. How could one band together when they were never really united in the first place?"

"…Multiple guilds." He muttered in realization. Jaune could understand what she was getting at but he didn't completely agree with her. Maybe it was video game logic talking to him since more guilds meant more variety in PvP guild wars.

She turned to face him, the sun's rays making her pale skin practically glow. She smiled at him. "Your ability to understand and draw conclusions is quite remarkable."

Did she just compliment him? That was a good thing, right? Lessens the chances of having a bullet flying through his head?

"Care to take a guess as to why these multiple guilds exist?" she asked.

He wanted to respond using his gaming experience but he didn't want to take his chances with Emerald. So, he decided to play it safe and say nothing at all.

"I figured as much." She crossed her arms. "Morality."

"Morality?"

"Every guild is formed based on a certain type of morality. Some are similar in comparison but there will never be two guilds that follow an identical morality. The guild that I control is just one example out of the list of guilds around Remnant." She returned to her seat. "You're aware that there are multiple guilds, so why are you so interested in joining my guild that you had to convince one of my members to give me a recommendation?"

He gulped down whatever lump had formed in his throat. "Emerald was the first person I've met in the Void and after seeing her do quick work with those Grimm I knew for a fact that she was strong. Once I learned the basics of the System, I thought it wouldn't be such a bad idea to join her- er _your_ guild. I thought, _'hey if she's powerful then I bet everyone in her guild must be just as strong too'._ I-I think my assumption was true since from just uh… _looking_ at you, I can tell that you're a dangerous individual."

He held a shaky breath when he finished.

Was it getting hotter in here or was it just him? Jaune could feel the individual sweat beads trickling down his face. Not to mention his clammy palms either.

There was a tug at the corner of her mouth. "Oh? So it's strength that drives you?"

He nodded.

"Then answer me – what is your opinion on power?"

His eyes widened at the question. Did she just…she did, didn't she? Now this was a question he could answer without fear. He slowly exhaled. "Power is…" Jaune fixed a confident smirk on his face "…everything. That's all you need if you want to achieve your goals. Power is the ability to laugh as you effortlessly rush through your enemies without getting hit at all. There is no limit to how much power one should have. You just need to have enough to strike your enemy down with one blow and then move on to the next, and the next, and the next, and the next, until all enemies are eliminated!"

He let out a quiet chuckle but immediately shut up when he remembered what kind of situation he was in. Jaune hoped that his enthusiasm on glass cannon theory didn't get him killed today.

The room went silent again.

Cinder let out a long sigh, either in relief or disappointment. "Judging from your response I can tell you have quite an adamant view on this subject. Very well then, I believe we're done here."

He straightened his posture, "S-So does this mean I'm in-"

"Emerald, would you kindly pull the trigger on your revolver?"

His blood froze solid and his face paled.

' _N-no… oh god please no…'_

He sluggishly turned his head over to Emerald. Their eyes met. But while his contained shock and fear, her eyes were distant; unreadable. "H-Hey…" he tried to beg for mercy but the words just wouldn't come out.

"Nothing personal, Jaune." She said before he heard the dreaded click of h-

 ***BANG***

Time stopped flowing.

* * *

 **Lapur Berdea: Green Bandit**

 **[DISCONTINUED] Sorry guys, I don't have it in me to continue this story anymore. I hope you understand that I – ah, I'm just messing with ya' XD. Anyways, I've been absent for most of the summer. I had planned to end the chapter when Jaune and Emerald left the restaurant but considering that I'm heading off for university in like 3 days, I decided to push it to my limits and create an 8000+ word chapter. Updates will probably slow down, but since I'm planning on quitting LoL, updates might speed up. Who knows what dorm life will give me -_-.**

 **Aaaaaanyways, I do hope you enjoyed the chapter. (Especially the ending :D )**


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